Into a New World
by Cheezel1993
Summary: What was supposed to end another fight against Dr Eggman has actually ended with rather different results. Stuck in an unfamiliar world, Sonic and several of his friends will have their work cut out for them as they try to find a way home. Making new friends along the way and getting up to the usual mischief, it's going to be an interesting experience.
1. Arrival

**(A/N) Okay new story. I normally do Sonic the Hedgehog fics, hence it being a crossover, but I thought I might have a crack at MLP while I'm at it. I'm relatively new to the MLP universe, so if characters seem a little OOC or I screw something up then I apologize. Anyway enough of this, here's the story.**

**Oh right, Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the hedgehog or MLP, they belong to their respectful owners. I only own this story and my own OC**

**Connor Jenkins belongs to me**

**Scott Rider belongs to sonicepiloguelover**

Into a New World

Rocket explosions, laser fire flying through the air, pieces of robots crashing around and a quick flash of blue dodging it all. The familiar signs of yet another battle between the heroic Sonic the Hedgehog and the nefarious Dr Eggman. Eggman had the usual hardware on his side, countless numbers of Swatbots and heavy defenses around his base. Sonic wasn't on his own this time though. This time, he'd brought along a few friends. With him were Knuckles the Echidna, Sally Acorn, Miles 'Tails' Prower, a red hedgehog named Scott Rider and Connor Jenkins, one of the few humans they personally knew.

Knuckles natural strength and the ability to crush almost anything with his bare hands made him a valuable asset to any team.

Sally may not have been one of the strongest fighters around, but with her tactical mind and strong leadership skills she had been a big help in many battles against the Dr.

Tails was Sonics oldest and greatest friend, he had been there beside Sonic for almost every fight and he wasn't going to let his brother down now.

Scott Rider and Connor Jenkins were the wild cards of the group. Neither of them had always been on the best of terms with the others, but time had helped heal the wounds of the past. Scott Rider was an expert marksman, able to hit a target dead on with just about any firearm he could get his hands on. His body was also able to heal wounds he sustained in shorter period of time due to an unknown chemical within his body.

Connor Jenkins was a man of many traits. He was clever and tactical just like Sally, but in a more cunning and sometimes devious way. His specialty was information mostly, he had a knack for finding information and using it to his advantage or solving mysteries. In combat his strongest skill was his reflexes and agility. Dodging most attacks that came his way while getting as close as he can to his opponent, bringing in his up close and personal style. A freak Chaos Control incident had left his body mutilated and nearly killed him. What saved his life were augmentations planted in his body. His left arm, right leg, and right eye had to be replaced with cybernetics and robotics.

The battle within Eggmans latest fortress had been going on for some time now, Swatbots were being taken down left, right and center. Sonic, Sally, Knuckles and Scott slowly but gradually made their way further into the metal fortress, Tails and Connor were yet to arrive.

"How much further do we have to go?" Knuckles asked after they had taken down yet another wave of robots.

"I can't say for certain," answered Sally. "Nicole seems to be having some trouble working out the mapping of this place," she added, looking down at the portable device she held in her hands.

"It would appear Eggman has found a way to halt my efforts of doing so," the A.I. explained.

"Well I guess that means we get to have some fun smashing up more of these junk heaps then," Sonic chuckled.

"You do realize if Eggman hears you saying that he's just going to send something bigger and badder our way right?" Scott said to the blue hedgehog.

"We'll see," Sonic replied with a laugh.

After stepping through another door they found themselves walking out into what appeared to be a large open courtyard.

"Is it just me or does this scream ambush?" Scott asked the others.

Not a second after the words had left his lips Swatbots began pouring into the courtyard from every nook and cranny in the area.

"I think that answers your question!" Knuckles shouted at him as he ran off to get into the fight.

"Tails? Connor? Where are you two?" Sally spoke into a radio she had on hand.

Up in the sky a bit of a ways out from the base, Tails and Connor were flying towards it in the Tornado.

"We're not to far away now Sally, I just need to find somewhere I can drop Connor off," Tails explained to her.

"No time. We need an extra set of hands down here right now!" Sally replied.

"Ok, I'll see what I can do," Tails said before hanging up the radio. "Any ideas?" He asked the human sitting in the passenger seat behind him.

"I'll take the flight suit," Connor replied.

"The flight suit?! We haven't even made it past the test phase for it yet!" Tails exclaimed.

"What better time to test it than now," Connor chuckled.

"I can think of a hundred betters times for us to test it," the fox groaned.

"Details details, just get ready to drop me out."

Connor undid his seatbelt and reached into one of the leg pockets of his grey cargo pants, pulling out what appeared to be a black balaclava. Instead of eye holes it had two white plastic looking spider like eyes on the front of it. Connor slipped the mask onto his head. It began to constrict in taking the shape of his head, and hardening until it appeared to be as tough as steel.

"You ready?" Tails asked.

Connor responded with a thumbs up. Tails sent the Tornado into a slow barrel roll, the moment the plane was upside down Connor easily dropped out from his seat. Diving through the sky he brought his arms into his sides and his legs together, straightening his body out as he continued to fall. A black line began to work its way down the back of his jacket beginning at the bottom of his mask, it spread out across his shoulders to his wrists and down his legs ending at the heel of his boots. When he brought his arms and legs back out there was a webbing connecting between his arms and legs, with everything complete he was gliding towards Eggmans base to join the fight.

"So is the flight suit functioning properly?" Connor heard Tails voice come in over the in-built radio.

"The Nanites seem to be holding together well enough," Connor replied. Tails noticed his breathing seemed to be a bit on the heavy side. "The breathers aren't working quite as well as we'd hoped though," he added, confirming Tails suspicions.

"You going to be alright down there?" He asked.

"I'll be fine once I get my boots on the ground and take this mask off," Connor replied.

They ended the conversation on that note and focused on getting to the base. As he came into the courtyard the fight was currently happening in Connor brought his arms and legs back in against his body, deactivating the webbing that allowed him to glide through the air. He landed on a Swatbot, sliding along the ground on top if it as if it were a skateboard. After enough damage he leapt off, drawing a knife and sinking it deep into the head of a second bot as he came down. He tucked into a roll as he hit the ground, pulling his knife out at the same time and sprinting for cover for a chance to gather his surroundings.

"Show off," a voice said next to him.

Connor looked across a found Scott ducking down in the same piece of cover, he was wearing his usual black leather jacket, blue ripped jeans and black and white hi top trainers. His hair was still just as long and spiky as it had always been.

Knuckles dived out of the way of missile, landing behind some cover just across from the other two.

"Dude, you look like Venom from Spider-Man with that thing," Knuckles said after noticing the mask Connor was wearing.

The mask softened up, giving it the appearance of a soft fabric once again. Connor removed it and tucked it away back into one of the pockets in his pants.

"How are we looking so far?" Connor asked the other two.

"Sonic's been doing what he does best, smashing Swatbots and pissing off Eggman at the same time," Scott answered. He popped up and fired a couple of rounds from his M9 pistol, taking down a bot with each bullet.

"Sally's been working with Nicole to take down the other defenses around the place, should make it easier for Tails when he starts making passes in the Tornado," Knuckles was next to explain. "She's also been taking out any Swatbot that gets to close," he added with a chuckle. "I'll bet she's glad I taught her a little hand to hand fighting now."

Tails made his first pass over the courtyard, he let the machine guns in Tornado loose taking out ten Swatbots in one go. He took out another twenty on his second pass. It only took the group ten minutes to clear the courtyard of any and all Swatbots.

"Well that takes care of that," Sonic chuckled. "You'd think Eggman would know by now that a few simple Swatbots aren't enough to stop us."

"Now now Sonic, you honestly didn't think it was going to be that easy did you?" Said the all familiar voice off none other than Dr Eggman himself.

"You say that every time Eggman, and every time we beat you. How is this time going to be any different?" Sonic taunted, just as cocky as ever.

"How about I show you exactly why," Eggman replied darkly.

A section of the center of the courtyard suddenly split, separating until there was circular pit in the ground. From the hole a figure slowly began to rise upwards. Before the group stood a machine of colossal proportions, now standing atop a platform which covered the hole that had once been there. It more or less looked like an oversized Swatbot.

"Allow me to introduce you to my latest creation, the Egg-Colossus!" Eggman said, finishing with a laugh.

"Holy shit," Connor slowly said.

"That's one way of putting it," Scott replied.

"Egg-Colossus, DESTROY THEM!" Eggman screamed.

The machine wasted no time complying to its commands. It raised both of it's arms up, machine gun fire coming from the right and missiles lighting up the area from it's left. Sonic started sprinting around the area, the machines weapons coming no where near to hitting him. He leapt into the air and spin dashed straight at. He put his all into the attack on the Colossus, however when he came away from it everyone saw not a single scratch had been made. Knuckles was having just as much luck as the blue blur, no matter how hard he threw his fists at the machine he couldn't even make dent.

"We're going to need a new plan here," Sally shouted out to everyone else. "Connor, do you think you can give us an analyses on that thing?"

"I can try," the human replied.

As he gave himself a view of the machine his right eye shifted to a glowing red. Through his eyes he could see each section of the robot being singled out and scanned, searching for any form of weaknesses and giving him any other important information on it. It obviously caught Eggmans attention, for the next thing he knew the Colossus was coming straight for him. Connor dived out of the way, barely avoiding a missile.

"I'm going to need some cover here guys! I won't be able to give you anything if I can't hold still long enough to get a good bead on it!" he shouted at the others.

"Don't worry, I've got this," Tails voice was heard over the radio.

Up in the sky, guns began firing out of nowhere, peppering the machine as Tails made another pass. Eggmans Colossus switched it's attention to Tornado, firing all of its weapons at the plane as it flew away. It was in these few moments Connor got something that could help them out.

"Sonic! The center panel on its chest looks like it's covering something, you should be able to knock it off!" He explained.

No one wasted any time, Sonic and Knuckles both leapt into the air hitting the panel with everything they had. Scott tore off the weaponized arm of a nearby Swatbot, using it to fire it's laser straight the target. Nicole and Sally managed to override one the nearby defense turrets, using Eggmans own weapons against him. Finally the panel fell the ground, revealing all seven Chaos Emeralds shielded behind a barrier. Each and every one of the group let out a horrified gasp. Eggmans maniacal laughter shifted everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.

"As you can see, I hold the power of all the Chaos Emeralds," he explained. "With them, I will destroy every single one of you before moving onto the rest of this miserable world. My Eggman empire will at last come to be, and I can't think of a better place to start than the city you all call your home. Mobotropolis!"

"Not a chance Eggman," Sally replied. "You've gotten this far before and you've still failed, this time will be no different."

"We shall see," Eggman chuckled darkly.

For one of the few times in his life, Connor was caught off guard. The Egg-Colossus raised its foot and brought it down on top him.

"Connor! Look out!" Knuckles screamed, sprinting towards his comrade.

The machines foot came crashing down upon both Knuckles and Connor, dust billowed outwards from the impact.

"NO!" everyone screamed at sight of this, Eggman laughed insanely at scene before him.

His laughter was cut short when noticed something odd about the Colossus' foot, it wasn't completely touching the ground. On closer inspection, Knuckles and Connor could be seen holding the machines foot above them.

"You're a damned fool, you know that?" Connor said through clenched teeth.

"Well if it wasn't for me, you'd be a pancake right now," Knuckles replied in strained voice.

Back out from under the machine everyone was trying hardest to get the thing to move. No matter what they tried though it just wouldn't budge, the Colossus was to heavy and the barrier covering the Chaos Emeralds was to strong. Next to him, Knuckles suddenly heard what sounded like a mechanical groan.

"What was that?" He asked with uncertainty.

"Me," Connor groaned back.

Next thing they knew, Connors mechanical leg gave out under him dropping him down to his knees. The sudden change in weight brought Knuckles down his knees as well.

"You guys might want hurry it up out there, we're not doing so well down!" he shouted to the others.

Sally, Sonic and Scott had no idea as to what they could do to save their friends, nothing they did worked. The Chaos Emeralds were simply making the machine far to powerful for any normal attack to work. That was until Tails came up with a bold plan, one he didn't like in the slightest.

"Everyone get out of the way," they heard his voice over the radio say. "This could go wrong in so many ways."

"Tails? What are you doing?" Sally asked slowly.

"Just trust me, okay Sal," he said, trying poorly to reassure her.

Up in the sky the Tornado could be heard approaching. Getting closer every second, getting to be too close. Suddenly the all familiar plane came flying into the courtyard, the bottom of it scraping the outside wall. The tornado flew crashing into the chest of the Egg-Colossus, exploding spectacularly into a ball of flames and debris. The colossus was knocked clean off of its feet, crashing to ground on its back. Knuckles and Connor helped one another up and hurriedly crawled away, Tails could be seen hovering to the ground having ejected from the Tornado at the last second. It seemed he had brought some of his tools with him as he was now wearing a brown backpack.

"You guys owe me big time," he said to Knuckles and Connor. They didn't reply, collapsing to the ground out of exhaustion instead.

"Sonic!" Scott shouted with a gasp. "The barriers down, go get the Chaos Emeralds!"

The blue blur didn't waste a single moment. With his trademark speed he sprinted straight for the emeralds, all while Eggman screamed in fury at the outcome of the events. In his presence the emeralds slowly floated into the air, circling him as they did so. They began to circle Sonic faster and faster, picking up speed until they were nothing more than a blur. At the last moment, they collapsed inwards. Empowering Sonic with the full energy of Chaos. Back away from all of this, his friends gathered together. Waiting for him to fly out as Super Sonic and to put and end to yet another mission to stop Dr Eggman. It didn't happen though, instead a white dome of energy began to grow outwards from where Sonic stood atop the colossus.

"What's going on?" Scott asked, slightly worried.

"I don't know," Tails replied. "This has never happened before."

All of sudden, the energy shot outwards. Engulfing everyone before they had a chance to move, shout, or even scream.

* * *

In an entirely different dimension, one inhabited by ponies, dragons, griffons and many other magical creatures, stood a well known city, Canterlot. A city known for its wealth, beauty but most significantly, the Princesses of Equestria. Canterlot was the home to princess Celestia and her sister Luna, rulers of the land and goddesses of day and night.

It was on this particular day Luna found herself making her way to the throne room, she had been called by her sister to discuss a matter. What it was, she had no idea. It must have been a matter if importance, else Celestia would have simply found her during the day when she had some free time. Luna approached the doorway to the throne room, the two guards standing on either side of the door bowed to her as she entered.

Luna found her sister standing by one of the windows rather than sitting upon the throne, staring off into the outside as if something had caught her attention.

"Sister, it is good to see you again," Celestia greeted with a smile, turning to face Luna.

"As it is you," Luna replied. "What is it you wished to discuss with me?"

Celestia turned to face the guards in the throne room. "Would you give us the room please," she kindly spoke. The guards bowed in understanding and left in an orderly fashion.

"This meeting must be of importance if we are to discuss it in private," Luna said, watching the guards make their exit.

"I am not entirely certain yet, but I do not wish to alarm anypony," Celestia explained. "Did you happen to feel the energy surge as I did this morning?" She asked.

"I did," Luna confirmed. "It was not at all significant and I thought nothing of it however."

"As did I," Celestia agreed. "It appears to have grown stronger throughout the day however. I fear it is a sign of events to come."

"What do you suppose it is?" Luna asked.

"I cannot say for certain, but this energy, it feels like..." Celestia paused to bite her lower lip. "It feels like, Chaos."

"Chaos?!" Luna exclaimed. "You do not think perhaps Discord could be behind this?"

"Discord has been locked away in stone for centuries, he could not possibly be responsible for this," Celestia explained.

"Then what?" Luna questioned.

"I wish had the answers dear sister, I truly do. However, this has even me puzzled."

Their talk was suddenly interrupted by what sound like a large explosion erupting across the skies.

"What in Equestria was that?!" Luna exclaimed.

Celestia turned back towards the window and stared out for a short moment.

"I do not know," she replied. "It sounded like it came from outside of Canterlot though."

"Do you think we should prepare some of the guards for a possible attack?" Luna asked.

"No, if anything were to happen the guards will be ready. I'm sure the noise will already have them prepared for the worst," Celestia answered.

"And what of Ponyville, it is but a small town with no real means of any defense."

"The Elements of Harmony will be able to take care if it. They are much stronger than anypony realizes, even they themselves do not know it yet." Celestia turned to face Luna again. "Have faith dear sister, everything will be alright."

* * *

Down within the Everfree forest, one particular human began to slowly regain consciousness. Connor let out a groan and rubbed his forehead.

"What the hell happened?" He said to himself.

It didn't take him long to realize something was different, that something was the fact that he was staring down through several tree branches at the ground. He looked back up and found one of his legs was caught between two branches. He wriggled and shook himself around to try and remove his foot from between the limbs but to no avail, Connor let out a sigh and pulled a knife from his boot. He curved his body up and got to the task of sawing through one of the branches.

"This is gonna suck," he muttered.

* * *

In a different part of the forest, Knuckles was the next to wake up. He shot up into a sitting position, panting heavily. Wiping some sweat from his brow, he took in his surroundings. Off to his left he found Sally lying on the ground. Knuckles jumped to his feet and ran over to her.

"Sally! Wake up!" He said, shaking her as he did so.

Sally began murmuring and slowly opened her eyes, blinking a couple of times once they were fully open.

"Knuckles? What's going on?" She asked.

Knuckles let out a relieved sigh, glad to see the princess was okay.

"I don't know Sally, last thing I remember is Sonic getting the emeralds and seeing nothing but white," he explained.

"Are the others okay?!" She said suddenly, quickly getting to her feet.

"Don't know, I've only seen you so far," the echidna replied.

Behind them they heard some rustling come from the bushes followed by the snapping of some twigs. Knuckles jumped in front of Sally, fists raised ready to fight. Out of the bushes appeared none other than Sonic the hedgehog.

"Sonic!" Knuckles and Sally both yelled at the same time.

"Nice to see you too", Sonic chuckled.

"What happened? Do you have any idea where we are?" Sally asked.

"Not a clue," Sonic replied. "This doesn't look like any part of the forest around Mobotropolis I've ever seen."

"We should get moving," Knuckles cut in. "We still don't know where Tails, Scott or Connor are, and with any luck we might find a clue as to where we are."

The others voiced their agreement, and with that the trio set off.

* * *

Tails had been wandering throughout the forest for a good twenty minutes, he'd found no sign of the others and no clue to which forest he was in. As he walked onwards he heard some rustling coming from above himself. Tails stopped walking and tilted his head upwards. Suddenly he heard a snapping noise followed by several heavy thuds.

"SHIIIIIIIT!" He heard a voice yell.

Out of nowhere, Connor dropped from the trees. He hit the ground face down with a hard thud.

"Ow," he said weakly.

"Nice of you to drop in," Tails said bluntly.

"Shaddup," came the reply.

Connor slowly got to his feet, his knees shaking slightly once he was up. He dusted off his clothes and picked up the knife that had landed on the ground next to him, he bent down and slid it back into the sheath in his boot. Tails hadn't gotten a good look at him earlier as they had been in a hurry, now that they were standing around though he got a better view of the human. Connor had Caucasian skin and was wearing a black leather jacket, a white long sleeve shirt, grey cargo pants and black boots. His blonde hair had grown since he'd last seen him, now coming down to the bottom of his neck. Connors most notable features had always been his eyes and the scar on his cheek. His left eye was blue while his right was red, the scar on his left cheek looked like someone had tried to give him a Glasgow smile.

"You know I always found it funny how humans are the same size as Mobians now, yet Eggman is so tall," Tails said, making a note of Connors height.

"Well it was bound to happen with humans having children with Mobians," Connor replied. "As for Eggman, well he's always been different in more ways than one."

"You don't have to tell me," Tails laughed.

"So, any clue as to how we ended up in a forest?" Connor asked Tails.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that white dome was the effect of chaos control. It must have teleported us here," the fox explained.

"Have I mentioned how much I hate chaos control," Connor said, looking at his metal arm.

"I think I have a fair idea," said a new voice.

The two of them looked to where the voice came from and found a very familiar red hedgehog walking towards them. A grin made its way onto Connors face upon seeing his best friend, the two greeted each other with a grip of the hand and slap on the back.

"So where the hell have you been?" Scott asked. Connor didn't reply, he simply looked up to where he had fallen from. Scott followed Connors gaze and then looked back to him. "That must have sucked," he stated.

"That it did," Connor replied.

"We should get moving," Tails suddenly cut in. "We still haven't found the others yet."

"Sounds good, but I think we've already found them," Connor replied.

Tails looked at him quizzically, puzzled by what he had just said. It wasn't until he heard some rustling coming off to the left of him that he understood what Connor meant. Out from some bushes appeared Sally, Sonic and Knuckles.

"There you are!" Sally exclaimed, running up to give Tails a relieved hug.

"It's nice to see you too Sal," Tails chuckled.

"I'm fine by the way," Connor said, Scott gave him a kick in the leg for the remark.

"Now that we're all here, any idea as to where we are?" Tails asked once Sally let him go.

"I don't know," Sally said. "I've tried to get Nicole but she's not responding," she added, holding up the hand held device.

"What about GPS? Doesn't that thing have more uses than just being a portable platform for Nicole?" Connor was next to ask.

"That was the next thing I tried. Unfortunately, I'm not picking up a signal. We're on our own," Sally explained.

"We'd better get moving then. We won't figure anything out by standing around," Sonic said, gaining everyone's attention.

Everyone was quick to agree, they all wanted to get out of the forest and figure out just where they were exactly.

* * *

Out of the Everfree forest in Ponyville, six well known ponies had gathered together. They were discussing the explosion from earlier and what to do about it.

"Are you sure this is good idea Twi? I mean, the Everfree forest ain't exactly known for its safety," Applejack said, voicing her concern.

"Come on everypony, we still don't know what caused that noise earlier. It needs to be investigated," Twilight answered, a hint of excitement in her voice.

"But darling, the Everfree forest is just so... FILTHY!" Rarity stated.

"And scary," Fluttershy added, just as quietly as ever.

"Twilight's right, we should find out what caused it," Rainbow Dash said, agreeing with Twilight.

"Thank you Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, she was cut off by the same mare before she could continue though.

"Because it was AWESOME! I want to meet the pony who did it. I mean, didn't the rest of you hear it?" She said, a little too eager for the others liking.

"Ooh ooh, I heard it I heard it!" Pinky Pie practically yelled, jumping up and down excitedly. "I was just walking out of Sugar Cube Corner when suddenly there was this, booooom!" she explained, arching her fore hooves out above her head as if she were re-enacting the noise.

The others simply stared at her for a moment, unsure how to respond to what she had just said.

"Anyway," Twilight said slowly. "We really should look into it, it could be an exciting adventure for us to experience."

Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack let out a sigh of defeat before finally agreeing to venture into the forest with her, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash watched the others with a big smile plastered on their faces. As the girls left Ponyville to enter the Everfree forest they failed to notice the Swatbots flying over head straight towards town.

* * *

Back with Sonics group, no real progress had been made. They had been wandering aimlessly through the forest for a good half hour, patience was beginning to run thin.

"Bloody hell! How big is this friggin forest!" Connor growled.

"Calm down Connor, getting angry isn't going to do us any good," Sally said.

"I could run off ahead you know, see if I can find something and then come back," Sonic offered.

Sally looked to the others, all of which gave her a quick nod. "Do it," she answered. "If you find anything, anything at all, you come let us know."

"No worries, just as I long as I get to stretch my legs," Sonic chuckled before disappearing off a ahead of them, kicking up leaves as he did so.

Not thirty seconds later, he was back.

"You guys might want to come see this," he said before disappearing again.

The others looked at one another briefly and sprinted off in the same direction. Tails was ahead of the group, using his tails to fly quickly through the air. Finally they found themselves out of the forest, Connor and Scott both let out a sigh of relief. Up ahead they could see a town and hear what sounded like laser fire.

"Didn't take Eggman long to get to work," Knuckles pointed out.

Above them a couple of Swatbots flew towards the town.

"Since when can Swatbots fly," Connor groaned.

"Never mind that, we need to help that town and fast," Sally stated.

Before anyone could say anything, Sonic was already sprinting straight towards the town. Tails and Knuckles were quick to follow. Sally went to run off but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder, she turned to find Connor holding a knife out towards her.

"You know how to use one of these right?" He asked.

Sally took the knife and twirled it around her hand a couple of times. "I've been practicing," she stated with a smile.

Behind them they heard some metallic sliding and clicking, they turned around to find Scott busily reloading his pistol and checking what ammunition he had left.

"You sure you got enough ammo left over?" Connor asked.

"I've still got a few clips on hand, should be enough for what's to come," Scott replied.

Connor pulled another knife out and held it out towards the hedgehog. "Save it," he said. "No point wasting it all if we don't know what supplies we might or might not find later on."

Scott gave him a shrug and holstered his pistol before taking the knife on offer. "Now then, let's go have some fun," he said with a smirk.

* * *

Back in the Everfree forest, the six girls had made some progress. Bushes that appeared to have walked through and footprints they didn't recognize in the dirt. They'd stopped for a brief moment as Twilight had wanted a chance search a particular area.

"Hey girls, come have a look at this," she said, catching everyone's attention.

The others walked over to her to find she was levitating a branch in front of herself, staring at it very intently.

"Uh Twilight, that's a branch," Rainbow Dash dead panned.

"No, what I mean is look at the edge of it. It hasn't snapped or anything, it looks like something cut through it," she explained.

"Well that would explain all the strange hoof prints we've been finding," Applejack added.

Off in the distance was sounds of explosions.

"Ohh there's another one," Pinky exclaimed.

"That sounded like it came from..." Rarity started.

Everyone went wide eyed followed by a loud gasp. "PONYVILLE!" They all shouted at the same time.

* * *

Back in the said town, everything was going down. Ponies were running around screaming as the Swatbots got to work destroying the place. One of the bots turned its head towards the road into town and noticed six figures making their way in.

"Priority one targets recognized," it said upon getting a better look at the figures.

Next thing it knew, a blue blur was on top of it slicing it clean in half. A second Swatbot turned its attention towards the first just in time to see its fellow bot falling apart.

"Alpha one target confirmed. Engaging," it spoke before going after blue blur.

Mayor Mare found herself running for her life. The day had started like any other day, then out of the blue these metal creatures turned up demanding that Ponyville submit to rule of someone named Dr Eggman. A laser shot hit the ground in front of her, it startled her and caused her to trip and fall to ground. She looked up to see a Swatbot standing over her ready to finish her off. Out of nowhere a knife flew through the air and embedded itself in the side of the bots head, the Swatbot slowly tipped over to its side and hit the ground with a loud crash. Connor walked up to it and ripped the knife straight out of its head.

"You need to move, gather up everyone you can and get them to safety," he said as he helped the Mayor to her feet. She stood in place staring for a moment, unsure what to make of the strange creature that had just saved her life.

"Don't just stand there, go! Now!" He shouted. The mayor got the hint and sprinted off. "Now then," he said to himself as turned back towards the fight. "Where were we?"

In the center of town Sonic was having the time of his life. Irritating Eggman was one thing he enjoyed more than anything, and what better way to do it than by destroying all of his machines.

Sonic darted ahead, dodging and weaving through many screaming ponies busy running for their lives. He leapt into the air and flew into a homing attack, smashing a Swatbot clean off its feet. He hit the ground and rolled straight into a spin dash, zigzagging along the ground taking out several Swatbots in the one motion. He pushed off of the ground, knocking a Swatbots head clean off its shoulders in the process. Sonic let out a whoop before sprinting off to smash some more bots.

A short distance away from where Sonic had made his display, Knuckles was wreaking just as much havoc on the machines. Swatbots were quite literally flying through the air as Knuckles fists knocked them clean off of their feet. He grabbed one of the bots on the ground by the feet and began to spin around. It didn't take long for the robot to gain enough lift, and once Knuckles had his target in sight he released his grip. The Swatbot went flying straight into cluster of his friends, strewing them all over the place. Knuckles pumped his fist in the air with a laugh and prepared for the next attack.

A little bit away from Knuckles, closer to the road into town, Scott found himself being knocked onto his back after misjudging a sudden attack. He hit the ground and immediately looked to see what was above him, finding a Swatbot raising its boot ready to crush him. A sudden grip on the back of his jackets collar grabbed his attention, he found himself being dragged backwards out of the path of certain death. A pair of hands roughly helped him back up onto his feet, he turned find it had been Connor who had helped him out. The two suddenly found themselves surrounded by four Swatbots, they ended up back to back.

"Well this is a predicament were in," Connor stated.

"We've been in worse," Scott replied.

"Fair enough," Connor chuckled.

"So, any ideas," Scot asked.

"We could go with that one move we pulled in Mobotropolis."

"Which one?" Scott said after a slight pause.

"That one time those four cops had us surrounded."

"This is a little different Connor."

"How so?"

"One, Swatbots are much taller than Mobians and Humans. Two, we didn't kill any of the cops. And three... we were really drunk that time, I'm surprised you can remember all of it cause I sure as hell can't."

"I can't remember all of it."

"Then what the hell are you saying?" Scott growled.

"Let's improvise," Connor replied with a smirk.

Eggman must have been listening to their very random conversation, because the Swatbots didn't move an inch throughout the entire talk. They were completely unprepared when Scott suddenly darted forwards, dropping to the ground and sliding underneath the Swatbot ahead of him. Connor threw a knife at the Swatbot straight ahead of him, piercing it straight through its face. He dived out of the way of a sudden barrage of laser fire as Scott clambered up the back of one of the remaining three. One of the other bots attempted to shoot Scott, it instead ended up blowing off the head of the Swatbot Scott was atop of. Connor jumped into the air and drove his shoulder into the chest of the bot that just destroyed its friend, knocking it onto its back. He gripped its head with both hands and started to pull, a few heavy yanks and its head tore off with an electric sizzle. The final Swatbot was dispatched with ease when Scott drew his pistol and fired a single shot. The bot fell to the ground, a bullet hole in its forehead.

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would," Scott said, turning to Connor.

"Yeah, it was," Connor replied. "It was quicker with the cops if I recall correctly though."

"Hey, how come those cops never followed up on us after that?" Scott asked. "I never heard anything about it at all."

He noticed a smirk making its way onto Connors face.

"What did you do," he asked cautiously.

"I didn't kill anyone if that's what you're asking," Connor laughed. "I pulled a few strings, asked a few favors and did a few jobs. Didn't I once tell you, if you're in trouble I can help."

"Yeah, because half the city owes you," Scott sarcastically scoffed.

"You know it," Connor chuckled.

Scott wasn't entirely sure if Connor was being serious or not, but he had a few rumors.

"Scott? Connor? Anyone?" They heard Sally's voice say over the radio.

"That thing's still working?" Scott asked.

"Apparently so," Connor replied, pulling the radio out of his pocket. "Yeah Sally, it's Connor. What do you need?"

"Me and Tails are at the town hall, the people in this town are gathering inside. We're trying to protect them but we're getting overrun, we need an extra set of hands here."

There was a brief moment silence as Connor turned his head to Scott, he received a nod in response and got back on the radio.

"Scott's on his way Sal, just hold out a bit longer," he explained.

"Thank you. Just make it quick, I don't know how much longer we can last," Sally replied.

"We'll see what we can do," Connor answered before stuffing the radio back into his jacket pocket. "I think I see your lift coming our way," he said, looking in the sky behind Scott.

Scott turned around to see a Swatbot equipped with a jetpack flying through the air in their direction.

"You thinking a boost?" He asked.

"That I am," Connor replied.

"Do you remember what happened last time we tried this?"

"Last time we tried this I was giving you a boost onto Tails Tornado when he was doing a low fly by."

"I almost got sliced in half!" Scott exclaimed.

"Quit being such a baby."

"Coming from the guy who got all teary at the end of Titanic."

"Hey! That happened one time alright! One time!"

Scott shook his head and laughed as he took a few steps backwards.

"Call it," he said.

"Alright," Connor replied. He set himself up so his fingers were linked together and his knees were slightly bent. "In three...two...one, and now!"

Scott sprinted ahead, he got to Connor and put his foot in his friends hands. As soon as he felt the boot Connor straightened his legs out and heaved his arms upwards, using all of his strength to get Scott airborne. When Scott saw the Swatbot heading towards him he prepared himself, the moment it was close enough he wrapped his arms around its neck. After a little twisting and swinging he managed to get himself onto its back. The Swatbot obviously had a direct set of orders as it completely ignored the Mobian now hitching a ride atop of it. Back on the ground, Connor turned himself around to find his next target, a smirk appeared on his face as an idea sprung into his mind.

* * *

Along the main road into Ponyville, the mane six were sprinting as fast as they could to reach the town. The sight that awaited them was like nothing they'd ever seen before. Their beloved town was now a battle ground, pieces of Swatbots were strewn out along the ground although the girls had no idea what they were. Off in the town they saw what appeared to be a blue hedgehog jump into the air. It curled into a ball, dashing ahead and slicing several of the metal beasts in two. The next thing they saw was a red echidna, slugging the creatures left, right and center with his bare fists.

"What in the hay is going on here!" Applejack shouted.

"I don't know, what I wanna know is what that one's doing," Dash replied, pointing towards a rooftop.

The others followed her hoof and noticed a creature they'd never seen before standing on the roof, it was Connor. He stood on the roof carefully watching a Swatbot flying in his direction, he smiled deviously and took a few steps back. Once the Swatbot had closed the distance, Connor ran ahead. He reached the edge of the roof a leaped into the air, grabbing a hold of the Swatbot and moving himself onto its back. Using all the strength he could muster, he was able to turn the machine and control which direction it would fly. The moment he had it flying towards a cluster of bots he stuck his knife into the back of its head, killing the Swatbot and deactivating its jetpack. Connor jumped off of its back and rolled as he hit the ground before standing up, the bot hit the cluster causing pieces of itself and the others to scatter everywhere. Connor slapped his hands together and laughed at the success of the stunt. His joy was short lived when another Swatbot dropped out of the air down in front of him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, lifting him up and hurling him back towards the road into town.

The girls saw Connor get thrown away and watched as he skidded and rolled along the ground, kicking up dust as he went.

"Look at it go!" Pinkie shouted, hopping up and down.

For a moment Connor thought it was never going to end, it was shock when he felt himself very suddenly come to a stop. This was mostly because he was now floating slightly off of the ground, a strange violet colored aura surrounded his body. The aura disappeared and Connor fell straight onto the ground flat on his face.

"Are you okay," a voice asked.

"Just peachy," Connor groaned, rolling onto his back. He looked up to find it was a violet colored pony who had asked the question. "Christ, now I'm seeing unicorns? I must have banged my head up pretty good," he muttered.

"Um... I am a unicorn," Twilight replied.

"...Okay," Connor said very slowly.

"Sorry to cut your little chat short, but the big guy's heading our way," Dash cut in.

Connor saw the girls looking at something behind him, he diverted his eyes towards the town and saw the same Swatbot that had thrown him walking towards them. Rainbow Dash prepared to fly off to attack when Connor raised his hand to stop her. He pushed himself up onto his feet and dusted his jacket off before turning his attention to the machine.

"Allow me," he said.

Connor began running at a slow pace and slowly sped up. The Swatbot raised its arm and began to fire its laser. Connor saw the first shot coming and twisted his body to the left, the laser went sailing by and hit the dirt behind him. He pulled off a front flip as he leaped over the second, continuing to sprint forward once his feet touched the ground. For the third he spun himself around, weaving off to the right slightly before moving back into his original path. The Swatbot didn't manage to get off another shot before Connor was on top of it, jumping into the air and knocking it square onto its back with a clothesline from his metal arm. He proceeded to tear off the Swatbots arm before bashing its head in with its own limb. Connor turned back around to find the girls all staring at him, wide eyed and slack jawed.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Dash shouted as she hovered in the air.

"If you thought that was good, then you should see Sonic in action," Connor chuckled.

"What was that thing?" Twilight asked.

"Swatbot," came the reply. "I'm starting to get a feeling that this isn't Mobius," he added.

"Mobius? No, this is-" Twilight began, she was cut off when a voice came in over Connors radio.

"Hey Connor, it's Scott. Looks like Eggman's had enough. The rest of the bots are bugging out," his voice spoke.

"About time," Connor laughed into the radio. "I'll meet you in the center of town, we need to gather our bearings," he finished.

"Sounds like a plan, see you there."

Connor stuffed the radio back into his pocket, pulling out a packet of cigarettes in its place. He pulled one out, slipped it into his mouth and lit it up. With his cravings now being satisfied, he began to make his way to the meeting point. It didn't take long for him to notice that the six ponies he'd nearly knocked over, courtesy of a Swatbot with a hell of throwing arm, were now cautiously following him. The pink pony skipping next to him speaking faster than he could keep up with was a bit of a giveaway. Upon reaching the meeting point he found only one of his friends there, Scott appeared to be washing his hands in the fountain.

"Scott," Connor greeted.

"Do you know much of a bastard the oil from those bots is to get off your hands?" Scott asked, scrubbing his hands vigorously in the water.

"Can't say I do," Connor replied, turning around and sitting on the edge of the fountain. Reaching into one of the inside pockets of his jacket, he pulled out a silver hip flask. He unscrewed the top and took a swig, holding out to Scott afterwards. Scott took the offer and had a quick drink himself.

"Cheers," he thanked, passing the flask back over.

"Are y'all gonna tell us who the hay you are by any chance," Applejack suddenly asked out of the blue.

"We'll wait for others get here if you don't mind," Scott answered.

Applejack gave him an understanding nod before looking over at Connor.

"I like your accent," the human randomly stated. Applejack raised an eyebrow at the comment, receiving a chuckle from Connor in response.

"He does that," Scott explained. "Never met anyone more random in my life."

"Well you obviously haven't Pinkie pie then," Twilight was next to say.

"Who's Pinkie Pie?"

"The pink one," Connor cut in. "Wouldn't shut up the whole way over here."

"That's just Pinkie being Pinkie darling," Rarity explained. "You get used to it after a while."

"Are you two alright?" A new voice asked.

Scott looked to his left to find Tails approaching them.

"Yeah we're good," he replied.

"Nothing but the usual minor flesh wounds," Connor joked.

"As charming as ever I see," Sally said, walking up beside Tails. She had Sonic and Knuckles with her.

"So if this is all of you, do you think you could tell us who you are exactly?" Twilight asked.

"I'm Sally Acorn," Sally began. "The others are Sonic, Knuckles, Scott Rider and Connor Jenkins," she added, pointing to each person respectively.

"Wow, no crack about being the fastest thing alive Sonic? You must have had a good day," Connor chuckled.

"So, um, wha-what are you exactly? If it's alright for me to ask that is," Fluttershy timidly asked.

"We're Mobians," Sonic explained. "And lippy over there," he added pointing at Connor, who gave him a grin and a wave. "Is a human."

"Humans and Mobians? I've never heard of such creatures. There isn't even anything in any of my books about your species," Twilight said.

"Twilight, you're such an egghead," Dash laughed. "You seriously need to get out more."

"Hey!" Twilight protested.

"Twilight! Twilight!" A young sounding voice suddenly said from behind the girls. They turned around to find Spike running towards them, a scroll clutched in his claws.

"Spike? What is it?" Twilight asked.

"I just got a letter from Celestia, it's right here."

Twilight levitated the letter in front of herself and quickly began to scan her eyes over it. Over by the fountain, Connor leaned over to Scott.

"Is that dragon?" He asked.

"I think so," Scott replied.

"I thought dragons were supposed to be ferocious, not innocent."

"Hey! I am ferocious," Spike protested. "Who said that anyway?"

"Their hearing's completely fine though it would seem," Scott said to Connor.

"So what does message say darling?" Rarity asked, drawing everyone's attention back to letter.

"It says she knows about the attack on Ponyville. She received word after the town had been saved, by all of you," Twilight explained, looking up at the group from Mobius.

"They're heroes," a new voice said.

Upon searching, everyone found it had been Mayor Mare who had spoken. It appeared most of the residents of the town were also slowly gathering around, talking quietly amongst themselves.

"These ponies saved the town, we owe them our thanks," the Mayor announced.

The area erupted in cheers as the townsfolk shouted their joy, celebrating the fact that they were all now safe and sound.

"Celestia also said she will be visiting Ponyville tomorrow with her sister," Twilight explained to the Mobius group. "She wants to meet all of you and make sure the town is alright."

"Okay then, so what do we do until then?" Sally asked.

"Well like I said, Celestia and Luna will be visiting tomorrow. That means you'll need a place to stay for the night. With the way everypony's reacting though, I don't think finding you a spare a room will be a problem."

Sally noticed that some of the ponies in town were beginning to crowd around her and the others. Looking over at Sonic she noticed he appeared to be getting a little uncomfortable.

"Are you alright there Sonic?" Sally laughed.

"I enjoy being the hero and all, but this is getting to be a little much," he replied as more and more ponies surrounded him, asking a million questions at once.

"Where's he going?" Rainbow Dash suddenly asked.

Sally looked up to see Connor making his way out of the town center. She looked over at Scott, thinking he might know seeing as he was Connors best friend. Scott caught her gaze and instantly knew what she was going to ask, he gave her a simple shrug of his shoulders as a response.

"Where are you going Connor?" Sally shouted.

"I've got work to do," he shouted back, not even turning around to face her when he replied.

"What does he mean by that?" Twilight asked uncertainly.

"If I know Connor, we'll probably find out in the morning," Knuckles answered, walking over to them.

"Okay," Twilight said very slowly. "Anyway, let's get to finding you all a place to stay."

"Sounds good," Sally replied with a nod. "I don't know about the others, but I'm looking forward to a bit of relaxing."

"I'll second that," Tails agreed, stretching his arms out.

It took them a little while to get through the rather large crowd of ponies. Afterwards though, it was a clear path ahead. The Mobians weren't sure what was going to happen next but one thing was certain, if they wanted to get home then they were going to need the Chaos Emerald. They had a new objective, and getting out of this world depended on its success.

* * *

Far away from Ponyville, on the outskirts of the opposite end of the Everfree Forest, sat a metal ship. Although its size wasn't nearing the scale of a mothership, it was still impressive. Within the bridge of the said ship stood the one and only Dr Eggman. He was currently reviewing the outcome of his attack upon Ponyville. Infuriated by the outcome, he slammed his fist down on the console he stood in front of.

"Those pests are here too?!" He screamed. "That hedgehog and his do-gooding friends! I'll destroy them if it's the last thing I do!" He chuckled darkly as he calmed himself down, raising his other hand and looking at the gem he clutched within it. "It wasn't a complete loss I suppose," he said, chuckling again. "Finding the green Chaos Emerald in that pathetic town was a stroke of luck. Now all I need is to find the other six and then... well, I believe that should be quite obvious," he finished, an evil grin slowly making its way onto his face.

**(A/N) Alrighty, first chapter done. To anyone who enjoyed this or decides to follow it or whatever, I don't when I'll be getting the next chapter done. Could be a couple of weeks, could be a couple of months. You'll just have to bear with me.**

**Anywho, that's all from me.**

**Catchya :)**


	2. Royal Meeting

**(A/N) Ok second chapter, got this done quicker than I thought I would. Thanks to everyone who liked, favorited and reviewed this story and whatnot.**

**I suppose it's only fitting that I do a shout out to the two people who reviewed the first chapter.**

**Sora the Ultrahog: Thank you very much for the feedback, I'm glad you liked what I've done so far. Hopefully you'll like the future chapters as much as you liked the first.**

**Werewolf lover99: I don't understand what the first part of your review is supposed to mean sorry, I'm glad you liked the story nonetheless though. As far as fan characters go, I'm not accepting others at the moment, that could happen later on but I can't really say for certain that it will. Nice of you to say, but that last chapter was no where near being a world record for words in a chapter. Like I said, nice of you to say but not quite a record haha :)**

**Gold the Fox: This guy didn't leave a review, but I did get a very nice PM welcoming me to the SonicxMLP side of Fanfiction. So thanks for that :D**

Into a New World

Celestias sun rose into the sky, putting an end to another night and bringing forth a new day. Sally Acorn stirred in her bed, slowly waking up to the sunshine shining in through the crack between the curtains. She got out of bed and stretched her arms out, several pops coming from her back. A knock came from the door, catching Sally's attention.

"Come in," she answered.

The door opened up and Tails walked in.

"Good morning Sally," he greeted.

"Good morning Tails," she replied. "Is something the matter?"

"No, nothing's wrong. I did run into Scott just now though, he says Connor wants to see us."

"Well then I suppose we should get going. Did he say what Connor wanted to talk to us about."

"Nope, he just said Connor wants see us, that's it," Tails finished before walking back out the door.

Sally let out a sigh and followed Tails out the door. Connor asking to see them could mean one of two things. He had something that was going to be helpful to them, or he was about to drop a bombshell of bad news. She was strongly hoping it was the former. Sally walked down the stairs and out the front door, she turned around to look at the building they'd spent the night in. They had all opted to spend the night in the town inn, rather than stay at the house of someone they didn't know. Outside Sally found Tails, Knuckles and Scott already waiting.

"Where's Sonic?" She asked.

"He's out for a run," Knuckles replied. "He said he'd meet us at the place we're meeting Connor."

Sally gave him a nod and the group set off. Walking through the town when it wasn't under attack by Swatbots was truly something to see. The townsfolk were peacefully going about their daily business. Wether it was selling items at one of the many stands set up around the place or having breakfast at the nearby cafe, they were all acting as if the attack yesterday had never happened. Sally had actually been surprised by how quickly the town had been cleaned up, even though there had been pieces of Swatbots torn off and strewn around the place there was now nothing to be seen. Surprisingly, none of the buildings had been damaged in the onslaught.

After a good ten minutes walk, the group found Connor sitting up against a tree in front of a large pond. On closer inspection they found he was fast asleep, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Do you think we should wake him up now, or wait until Sonic gets here?" Tails asked.

"Probably wait until Sonic arrives, who knows what sort of mood he'll be in if we have to wait," Sally chuckled.

"Good morning everypony," a voice said behind them. The group turned around to find Twilight standing a few steps back from them. "Did you all sleep well?"

"Yes, we did thank you," Sally answered.

"Speak for yourself," Knuckles cut in. "The bed I got was way too soft."

"Your bed was too soft? I've never heard anypony make a complaint like that before," Twilight said, tilting her head.

"Well considering you've spent most of your life sleeping on a stone altar, I'm not all that surprised really," Tails laughed.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, only to be quickly cut off by a sudden gust of wind.

"Sorry I'm late," said Sonics ever familiar voice. "Where's Connor?"

"Right here," Scott answered, now standing in front of the human.

The others walked over to the tree expecting Connor to be awake, only to find he was still fast asleep.

"Aww, he looks so peaceful," Twilight cooed.

"Yeah, he does," Scott grunted before suddenly giving Connor quick kick in the leg.

"It's a can opener!" Connor blurted out, jerking forward very quickly. He brought his hands up to his face and gave his eyes a rub. He twisted his neck a couple of times, in turn letting out several pops.

"So, you wanted to see us?" Tails said.

"Yep, you ready to learn a few things?" Connor asked.

"Go ahead," Sonic sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"Righteo then. We are currently in the land known as Equestria, or more specifically, we're in the Town of Ponyville. This world seems to have quite the assortment of creatures that we thought were myths, things like Unicorns, Pegasi, Gryphons, Minotaurs and the list goes on really.

"Ok, what else," Sally asked.

"Equestria is watched over by two rulers, Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna. Celestia is the goddess of the day and believe it or not, she actually raises and sets the sun. Now Princess Luna is the goddess of night, she takes care of the moon and watches over the dreams of the people of Equestria. Or should I say, the ponies of Equestria."

"Ok, that's almost... a little hard to believe," Tails said.

"He's telling the truth you know," Twilight stated.

"And for the finale," Connor cut in. "Just like we have the Chaos Emeralds, this world has its own special little artifacts. The Elements of Harmony. They're pretty damn powerful from what I've found, although the fact that they represent elements of friendship is a little weird to me. Now these elements can't just be picked up and used by almost anyone like the Chaos Emeralds, they only react to the representative of each element. And those representatives are..." Connor paused for a moment before reaching into one of his jacket pockets, pulling out a notebook and flipping it open. "Right then, where were we. We have Applejack, who represents honesty; Rainbow Dash, who represents loyalty; Rarity represents generosity, Pinkie Pie represents laughter; Fluttershy represents kindness and lastly there's Twilight Sparkle, who represents the Element of Magic," Connor finished, looking across at Twilight who was now staring at him wide eyed. "So how did I do?" He asked with a smirk.

"You learnt all of that in one night?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Well there's plenty more I could talk about, but quite frankly; I can't be stuffed," Connor replied, lighting up a cigarette.

Twilight looked across at the others, looking for some form of an explanation.

"Connor can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he's damn resourceful when he wants to be," Scott explained.

"I'm a pain in the ass am I?" Connor asked, raising eyebrow.

"Yep, probably why we're friends," Scott chuckled.

Connor shrugged his shoulders before letting out a very tired yawn.

"Did you get any sleep at all last night?" Sally asked.

"...Maybe" came the slow reply.

"You really need to take better care of yourself Connor," Sally sighed.

"You didn't have to spend all night finding answers you know," Twilight said, looking at Connor. "I'm sure Princess Celestia will be more than happy to give you any information you want, there's also me and everypony else in town for that matter."

"Ha, don't even go there," Knuckles suddenly laughed.

"Huh?" Twilight replied.

"Connor here is a little bit... different, to anyone else you'll meet," Tails explained. "Trust issues being one of the factors. If he doesn't know you and you tell him something, he'll go find some answers himself to make sure you're telling the truth."

"Seriously? That's crazy!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yeah well, I am crazy," Connor laughed.

Twilight let out a groan and turned around to walk off. "I'll come find you when the Princesses arrive, although I think it'll be a little hard to miss," she explained.

The others gave their thanks and said their goodbyes.

"So what should we do now?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going running," Sonic replied. Before anyone could stop him, he was already gone.

"So what about the rest of you?" Connor asked.

"Well I know what we need to do, and that's keep an eye on you," Sally answered.

"What?!" Connor nearly shouted.

"I know you Connor. You don't care much for royalty, the moment the Princesses arrive you'll find a way to disappear," Sally explained.

"Aww come on!" Connor groaned.

"For once I'm going to agree with Sally here," Scott said. "If anything we need to cooperate, and doing a runner before meeting with the rulers of the land certainly won't look good."

"Seriously Scott? Since when do you care about setting a good example?" Connor asked, finally standing up rather than sitting against the tree.

"Since we just did a dimensional hop off of Mobius."

"Righto then, whatever you say," Connor sighed, rubbing his eyes again.

"Actually Connor, there's something I wanted to talk with you about," Tails said.

"And what's that?"

"I'll be better off showing you first. Twilight let me use the basement of her house, that's where it is."

"Lead the way then."

The two of them walked off, leaving Sally, Scott and Knuckles to decide what they were going to do.

"Anyone hungry?" Knuckles asked.

"I could go for a bite. Know anywhere we could get some breakfast?" Scott replied.

* * *

Down in Twilights basement, Connor and Tails were about ready to get to work.

"Twilight lives in a library? Seriously?" Connor said.

"It suits my needs, I like books," a voice at the top of the stairs stated.

Connor and Tails looked to where the voice came from to find Twilight and two others walking down the stairs.

"Are you stalking us or something?" Connor asked.

Twilight raised her eyebrows as one of the others laughed quietly.

"Ignore him," Tails said. "Who are your friends."

"Oh right, this is Applejack and Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied.

"That's Rainbow Dash the fastest flyer in Equestria thank you," Dash stated.

"Don't let Sonic hear you mentioning anything about being the fastest around," Connor chuckled.

"So what are you two doing down here?" Twilight asked quickly, cutting off Dash before she could say anything else.

"Yes Tails, what are we doing down here?" Connor added, turning to the said fox.

"It's right here," Tails replied, approaching a table.

There was something upon the table, covered by a sheet hiding it from view. Tails pulled the sheet off to reveal a deactivated Swatbot underneath. The bot was face down on the table, it was one of the Swatbots that had been upgraded with a jetpack.

"So what do we need with a Swatbot?" Connor asked.

"Well at first I was just tinkering, trying to see if I could get anything useful out of it," Tails explained. "But then I got to looking over the jetpack, its design is based off of nanotechnology. With a bit of work, we might actually be able to convert your flight suit into a full on jetpack."

A grin quickly appeared on Connors face, a short laugh escaping from him.

"I think you just made my day Tails," Connor said.

"Hang on, what's a flight suit?" Dash cut in.

Tails walked over to his backpack and pulled out a tablet, switching it on and searching through all the data stored on it. He pulled up the schematics for Connors flight suit and made his way over to the three ponies.

"This is a flight suit," he explained, showing them the tablet. "As the name says, it allows the user to fly through the air. Connor's the only one who can use it though, his cybernetics allow him to manipulate the Nanites to form the webbing."

"It almost looks like one of them flying squirrels," Applejack noted.

"Well that's more or less what we based the design off of," Connor added.

"So then what are Nanites," Twilight asked.

"Tiny little machines," Connor replied. "I can only manipulate them though, not completely control them. To do that I'd need to be a supercomputer."

"If there's anything else you want us to explain then we can talk to you later, I'd like to get work if that's alright," Tails politely said.

"Of course, we'll leave you to it," Twilight replied. "Come on girls, I think Pinkie Pie wanted our help."

Connor turned back to the table once they had left. "So what are we gonna need to do?" He asked," pulling out his mask and putting it on the table.

"Well first we're going to need to work out the schematics for it, you're a lot shorter than a Swatbot after all," Tails replied.

"At least we're actually taller than something now that we're in this world," Connor chuckled.

"We're only about a head taller than those ponies you know."

"Still, it's a change."

"So anyway, after we finish the schematics it should be a bit easier for you to reconfigure the Nanites."

"Okay then, let's get started," Connor finished with a grin.

* * *

Down at Sugarcube Corner, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy were walking up the stairs to Pinkie Pies room. Pinkie had said she'd needed their help with something, and the girls had a fair idea what she was planning. They walked into the room to find Pinkie zipping from one side of the room to the other.

"Oh, where did I put it where did I put it!" She shouted, obviously panicking.

"Pinkie? What are you looking for dear," Rarity asked.

"My party cannon! I can't find it anywhere!" Came the reply.

"Well, where did you last have it," Twilight asked.

"The last place I had it was..." Pinkie started, trailing off at the end. All of a sudden she let a long gasp. Dashing over to her wardrobe, she slammed the doors open and used her mouth to pull out a lunchbox. She opened it up and out flew a cannon that should have been far to big to fit into the said lunchbox. "Found it," she sang gleefully.

If the girls didn't know of Pinkie Pie and her antics, they probably would have questioned how she managed to fit such a big object into such a small container. Already knowing her quite well however, they didn't question how she managed to break the laws of physics on a daily basis.

"You sure seem to be going to a lot more trouble than usual for a party," Rainbow Dash noted.

"Well duh," Pinkie replied. "This is the first time I've thrown a, 'Welcome to Ponyville thank you for saving our town' party! I have to make sure it's extra superspectacularlyawesome!"

"They seem like a pretty laid back group you know. I don't think they'll mind if you don't throw a big party," Twilight explained.

Pinkie responded with an overly elongated gasp. "Don't throw a big party?! Are you a crazy pony?!" She added.

"So, um, Pinkie Pie. We're all here now, what did you need us for?" Fluttershy asked.

"Oh, I just needed you to help me find my party cannon. But we've found it now, so good job everypony!" She said, patting Fluttershy on the head

The others stood there for a moment, simply looking at one another. Their silence quickly turned into friendly laughter.

"Alright Pinkie, let us know if you need anything else," Applejack said as the laughter began to calm down.

Without giving them a reply, Pinkie zipped past them, out the door and straight down the stairs.

"Ok girls, the princesses will be here any moment now. We should get ready to meet them," Twilight explained.

About half an hour later, the girls stood out front of the library. They'd gathered up the Mobian group earlier and they were now waiting with them. Out from the library walked Tails.

"Where's Connor?" Sally asked.

"He should be out shortly, he was following me up," Tails explained.

"I don't trust that man," Sally growled.

She walked past Tails and entered the library. Everything was silent for a moment.

"SON OF A -" everyone suddenly heard Sally shout. She stormed out of the building, anger clearly evident on her face.

"What's wrong?" Scott asked.

"He's gone," Sally replied, venom in her voice. "I asked him to do one simple thing for me and he still does a runner."

"Wait. So you mean he's not going to meet the Princesses? What will they think?" Twilight said, somewhat worriedly.

"Does he have a problem with royalty or somethin'?" Applejack asked.

"Something like that," Tails replied.

"Well you can't make Connor do what he doesn't want to do," Sonic chuckled.

"That's one of putting it," Scott said.

"Oh look, here they come," everyone heard Rarity say.

Following her eyes, they gazed towards the sky ahead of them. They could see two chariots heading towards them, each with one of the Princesses sitting within. Celestias chariot was white with sections of gold, hers was being pulled by two of her royal pegasus guards. Luna's chariot was a deep blue, it was pulled by two of her night guards. The two chariots gracefully landed on the grass in front of the library, the ponies in the surrounding area bowed their heads respectfully. Taking the hint, the Mobians followed suit. The Princesses stepped out their chariots, they thanked their guards and approached the mane six and the Mobians.

"Hello once again my little ponies, and hello to you as well visitors," Celestia greeted, her voice sounding as compassionate as it always had. "We thank you for helping this town in its time of need."

"Well couldn't just sit around and watch it burn now could we," Sonic replied with a chuckle.

"My sister is right to thank you," Luna explained. "We do not wish to consider what may have happened had you not arrived when you did."

"It truly is a delight to put a face to your names," Celestia said. "My most faithful student Twilight Sparkle spoke well of you in one of her letters. Please forgive me if I am mistaken, but are we not missing one of your friends?"

"Uh yeah, about that," Sally replied nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "Connor is currently... unavailable."

"Unavailable you say? Then perhaps we should find a way to make him available," Celestia replied, a mischievous smirk making its way onto her face.

"What are you thinking sister?" Luna asked.

"It would seem one of visitors wishes to play a little game, and it has been a while since we have been able to have a little fun."

* * *

A short distance away from the library, Connor could be found seated upon a branch of tree. He had his back rested against the body of the tree, his left leg lying along the branch while his right hung over the side. He was peacefully sitting in place with eyes closed, quietly smoking a cigarette. Due to his eyes being closed he didn't notice a cloud float down to his level, Princess Luna lay atop it carefully watching the strange creature before her.

"GREETINGS HUMAN!" She suddenly bellowed in her royal Canterlot voice, Connors entire body flinched at the sudden disturbance. "WE REQUEST THEE JOIN US FOR A FRIENDLY MEETING SO WE MAY PROPERLY INTRODUCE OURSELVES TO ONE ANOTHER!" Connor slowly turned his head to face Luna. "WOULD THEE KINDLY AGREE TO OUR REQUEST?!"

Connor simply stared at Luna for a short while. For a moment, Luna thought she had actually frightened the poor creature. All that was thrown away when Connor finally replied.

"Uhh... no," he quickly said. He flicked his cigarette away and let himself roll out of the tree, sprinting away the moment his feet touched ground.

"This may prove to be quite entertaining after all," Luna chuckled to herself.

Connor sprinted his way through town, many ponies stopping to watch him; unsure as to why he would be running so fast. He figured if one of the Princesses would come find him first up, then anyone could be chasing him now. He ducked into an alley between two houses, hiding away at the other end. Peeking around the corner, Princess Luna could be seen calmly making her way through town. The townsponies would either stop to politely greet her or bow their heads respectfully, they may not have noticed it but by way she gazed around herself Connor could tell she was searching for him.

"So who's idea was it to play hide and seek?" Connor asked.

"How did you know I was here?" Someone behind him replied.

Connor turned around to find Sonic standing behind him. "Do I really need to answer that?" He chuckled.

"Probably not," the hedgehog answered. "So, you gonna come out and talk or do you need to be restrained?"

"Hmmm, how about this," Connor said, suddenly running back out of the alley.

Sonic gave chase, rather than running at full speed he moved at a steady pace; just fast enough to keep up with Connor. Up ahead, Sonic could see Princess Luna. She was standing in place, watching the two as they approached. At the last moment Connor leapt into the air, diving over the top of Luna. He twisted his body around so his back was facing the ground, bringing his legs up and moving into a backflip. Sonic decided to take the low ground, dropping to the ground and sliding straight underneath the Princess. Luna turned around to watch the two running off.

"Impressive," she said to herself.

* * *

Further down the road, Celestia sat outside of SugarCube Corner with Twilight Sparkle. The plan had been to flush Connor towards the direction of the sweets shop, they'd decided to figure out a way to get him to stop when they got to that point.

"So why didn't you just teleport him here Celestia? Why go to all this trouble?" Twilight asked, looking up at her mentor.

"My sister and I do not often get time to simply stop and enjoy ourselves Twilight. It is nice to participate in some of the simplest of activities, even if they may seem childish at first," Celestia explained, finishing with a chuckle.

Twilight giggled slightly, it was nice to see the pony she had come to admire so much was able to ease up once in a while. With a quick gust of wind, Sonic appeared directly in front of them.

"Oh, Sonic. And where is your friend?" Celestia asked.

"He took the high ground," Sonic replied, using his thumb to point behind himself.

Up behind Sonic they could see Connor running along the rooftops. He made it look easy as he leapt from one roof to another. Out of nowhere Rainbow Dash came soaring through the air towards him, obviously going to make an attempt to tackle him to the ground.

"Enough of the games!" She shouted.

At the very last second Connor dropped down onto his side, sliding right underneath the cyan pony as she flew onwards.

"Stuff. This. Shit!" Connor growled, reaching into his leg pocket.

He pulled out his mask and immediately slipped it over his head, the mask constricted and hardened and the Nanites got to work. Instead of just one slow simple line, his entire back was quickly covered. The object now on his back split down the middle and spread outwards, sitting along his shoulder blades and reaching out to about the length of his arms. Two fiery orange circles slowly lit up along the bottom edges of each wing. With everything sorted Connor jumped off the edge of the roof, the thrusters kicked in and off he flew. Sonic watched on in absolute shock, he'd had no idea Connor had a jetpack.

"Well... I wasn't expecting that," he stated.

"Well I'll be damned," said a new voice, Sonic turned around to find Tails standing behind. "I didn't think he'd get it working so quickly."

"Wait, you helped him make that?" Sonic asked.

"All I did was draw up the schematics, Connor did the rest. I had thought it would take him longer than one morning though," Tails replied.

"So, I guess Connor's well and truly gone for the moment then?" Twilight asked.

"Yep, that's pretty much it," Tails sighed.

"T'was entertaining while it lasted," Luna said with a grin, approaching the slowly growing group.

"It is nice to see you are enjoying yourself sister," Celestia noted. "Would you and your friends care to join us for tea and cake? Perhaps it will give you a chance to tell us about yourselves," she said to Sonic.

"Sure, sounds good. I'll go round the others up," Sonic replied before disappearing in a cloud of dust.

"Has he always been that fast?" Twilight asked Tails.

"For as long as I can remember," Tails replied.

About an hour later, the Mobians and ponies were making their way back towards the library.

"So you are a Princess in your world?" Celestia said to Sally.

"Yes I am, although I prefer not to be treated differently just because of my title," Sally explained.

"If that is what you wish, then that is how it shall be."

"Thank you," Sally replied with a grateful smile.

"Hey guys, I think Connor's on his way back," Scott said, pointing out towards the front of them.

Up ahead in the sky they could see a figure fast approaching, almost a little too fast. Before they knew what was happening, Connor had flown straight over their heads and crashed into the ground behind them. A cloud of dust kicked up into the air, obscuring anything from view. Out of the dust flew a machine, one that no one had ever seen before. It smashed head first into a tree beside the group, crushing its head in destroying it. On closer inspection it could be seen that it was much smaller than a Swatbot, it was about the same size as the average Mobian or Human. It's slender body gave it an almost feminine look.

"Get off of me ya goddamn pricks!" They heard Connor shout.

Turning back to the dust cloud, they could see it slowly clearing up. A second machine came flying towards them, this one was missing an arm and its head. The dust finally cleared and they could now see the fight that was underway. Connor was currently in a brawl with three more of the machines.

"Feel free to jump in any time now!" He shouted at them.

"Oh I don't know, I think you've got this pretty well handled," Scott chuckled.

"Asshole!" Came the angry reply.

Connor shoved one of the machines away from himself, only for a second to jump towards with its fist raised ready to strike. He raised his arms and blocked the blow. He followed the force from the punch and allowed himself to drop down to his knee, quickly rising again he slammed the bot with a heavy uppercut from his metal arm. The machine was sent flying through the air and hit the ground, down but not out. The third machine charged straight at Connor, he moved out of the way and let it flow past him. It turned around just in time to receive a boot to the chest, knocking it back into the wall of the library. With his metal arm Connor slammed an open hand straight into its face, holding its head against the wall. Using everything he had, he applied an increasingly firm amount of pressure to its head. Slowly its face caved inwards, it kicked and thrashed about trying to remove the grip. Finally its head gave out completely and its face caved in, the machine dropped limply to the ground. The first robot came back again, kicking its leg upwards towards Connors head. He blocked the kick and swept its other leg out from under it, dropping it to the ground. He quickly stomped on its chest, caving it in and destroying the bot. The final one cautiously circled Connor, obviously judging its next move. Connor took the incentive and made his move, directing a punch towards its head. The bot blocked the attack and hit him in the chest, knocking him back a few paces. It swung a wild haymaker, Connor easily ducked the punch before hitting it with a shoulder charge; tackling it to the ground. He drew his knife and cut a deep gash straight across its belly. Stabbing his knife into the ground he placed his hands on either side of the wound and began to force it open. There was a whining of metal and electric sizzle before the force became to much, the final machine was split into two halves. Connor grabbed his knife out of the ground and slipped it back into its sheath before standing up.

"What the hell was that all about?" Knuckles asked as Connor turned to face them.

The human reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out something the Mobians recognized almost instantly, the purple Chaos Emerald.

"Take the Emerald," Connor gasped.

"What?" Sally asked, totally confused.

"Take the Emerald," Connor quickly repeated.

Before they could figure out what he was on about, Connors eyes rolled into the back of his head before he suddenly collapsed.

"Connor!" Scott shouted, sprinting to his friend.

He placed his fingers on Connors neck, checking his pulse. Letting out a sigh of relief, he stood back up again.

"Looks like he just over exerted himself, he should be alright," Scott explained.

"Well that certainly ain't somethin' you see everyday," Applejack stated.

"Why didn't you guys help him?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It was nothing he couldn't handle," Knuckles explained.

"Besides, we thought you might like to see what we're capable of," Sonic added. "That may have only been Connor then, but believe me when I say we can all hold our own just as well as that in one way or another."

"As educational as this may have been, I would prefer if you never leave anypony on their own like that again if you can help it," Celestia said.

"Of course, we understand your concern," Sally replied.

"Are you sure this one going to be alright?" Luna asked, standing over Connor.

"He'll be fine, he should wake up again in a couple of hours," Tails explained.

"Let's put him in the library then, I have a spare bed we can leave him on for the time being," Twilight said to the group.

Knuckles approached Connor and lifted him up with ease. "I'm interested in finding out how he found the Chaos Emerald in the first place," he stated.

"Heh, you and me both," Sonic chuckled.

Now inside Twilights library, Connor had been placed on top of the bed as everyone else gathered on the main floor.

"It was nice to see you again Twilight," Celestia spoke to her student. "And it was a pleasure to meet all of you," she added, speaking to the Mobians. "If there is anything else you can think of that we may need to know of this Dr Eggman, please do not hesitate to tell us. I will not soon forget what you told us at SugarCube Corner."

"Yes, this Eggman sounds like an absolutely despicable creature," Luna agreed.

"Of course, we'll keep in touch. Although, the fact that he seems to be making new types of machines does cause concern for me," Sally explained, noting the new robots they had just encountered.

Celestia gave her an understanding nod. "Well we had best be getting back to Canterlot, thank you again for all you've done," she replied. "Goodbye my little ponies, I do hope to see you all again in the near future," she said to the girls before making her way out the front door.

"Goodbye for now my friends," Luna simply said, following her sister out the door.

"So what now?" Scott asked.

"Now? Now its party time!" Pinkie Pie screamed in delight, her head somehow sticking out from one of the many bookcases.

The Mobians of the group looked at one another before they all said a single word at the same time.

"Huh?"

**So yeah, this chapter was a bit shorter than the first. That first one was a bit of a fluke in all honesty haha.**

**Anywho, please take some time to leave a review if you liked this. Writers thrive on those things ya know ;)**

**Until next time my friends.**

**Catchya :)**


	3. Party Time!

**(A/N) This is starting to get somewhat more popular than I thought it would, so thanks to everyone who's reviewing, following, favoriting and even just taking the time to read this story. So thanks to all of you. Now then for the review responses.**

**Gold the Fox: It's nice to know you've enjoyed this so far, and thanks for letting me know I got the character interactions right. I was pretty confident with Sonic characters, not so much for the MLP side of things. Like I said, I'm relatively new to the MLP universe. So if I do happen to screw something up, feel free to point it out everyone.**

**epic shock: I have mentioned that I'm not taking OC's at the moment in earlier chapters, I gather you just missed that bit so that's all good. If I do happen want a few OC's though, I'll let everyone know at the end of whatever chapter I just wrote. Thanks for the review, I'm glad that you've enjoyed it so far.**

**sonicepilougelover: I was wondering when you'd find this story, glad to know you have now my friend haha. I hope it does keep getting better with every chapter, have to wait and see how I go though huh? As for the party, well here it is**

**Sora the Ultrahog: Well to be fair, Nanites are more like a gadget rather than a power. Nice to know you won't hold it against me though haha. Not so much action in this chapter but plenty of humor I hope, plus one running gag ;)**

**werewolf lover99: Like I said to epic shock, I'm not taking OC's. I'm glad you're enjoying the story though. And yeah, that first half of your last review was a little confusing haha. **

**Now then, onwards to the chapter!**

Into a New World

Sonic stared at the Emerald he now clenched in his hand, he could feel the power emanating off of the gem just by holding it. It may have only been one of the seven, but with it he and his friends were now one step closer to getting home. It had been two hours since the Chaos Emerald had been found and Connor was still up on the bed, completely out of it. Sonic got to thinking, if Eggmans robots had found just one of the Emeralds; could he have already found one of the others? It was a worrying thought, but unless he found them all he wouldn't be able to cause to much destruction.

Now that the sun had set, things seemed to be starting to get more lively in the town, Pinkie Pie hadn't been joking when she'd said something about a party. Balloons had been strung up on just about every lamp post in town, ribbons and streamers littered the trees, ground and buildings as far as anyone could see. Cake, punch and many other assortments of snacks and drinks sat upon tables set around the place. A stage had been erected in the town square, it had what looked like a section for a DJ booth set up. The Pink pony responsible for the entire thing skipped happily throughout the town, stopping once in a while to talk to the townsponies, grab something to eat or simply play one of the several games set up. It appeared she was an absolute pro at pin the tail on the pony, hitting the mark spot on every time. Sonic swore she had to be cheating somehow. For a second Pinkie went missing from sight, Sonic looked around himself to see if he could find her. He stumbled back when two blue eyes suddenly appeared in front of his face.

"What the heck!" He shouted.

"Wow, you sure are a scaredy pony," Pinkie giggled, jumping down off of Sonics head.

"How did you do that?" Sonic asked.

"How did I get on your head? Oh that's easy, I stood on it," Pinkie replied, a big grin plastered on her face.

Sonic simply stared, there really was no way to reply to that sort of logic.

"Ok," he said slowly. "Well I'm gonna go over there to...do...stuff." With that, he was gone.

"Enjoy the party!" Pinkie screamed, waving a hoof as he went.

Sonic stopped in front of one of the many food tables, he reached over and poured himself a cup of punch.

"Pinkie Pie's great isn't she?" He heard a voice chuckle. Sonic looked around himself trying to find who had spoken, having no luck whatsoever. "Up here," the voice said.

Sonic looked up to find Rainbow Dash poking her head over the edge of a cloud, she had a grin on her face.

"She scares me a little," Sonic stated. Rainbow Dash rolled over onto her back and started laughing, her back hooves sticking up in the air and front hooves holding her belly. "Oh yeah, real funny," he sarcastically grunted.

Rainbow slowly stopped laughing, letting out a sigh of relief when she did finally stop. She jumped off the cloud and floated to the ground, wiping a tear from her eye as she did.

"Sorry, some ponies reactions to Pinkie Pie are just too good sometimes," she chuckled.

"Right," Sonic simply replied.

There was a moment of silence between the two, neither had any idea what talk about. That was until Rainbow Dash suddenly remembered something.

"So, I hear you seem to think you're the fastest pony around," she said.

"I don't think I am, I know I am," Sonic chuckled.

"Well you won't be thinking that once you see me in action," Rainbow Dash smirked.

"Is that challenge?" Sonic asked.

"Maybe it is, what are you gonna do about it?"

Sonic laughed a little before replying. "Well if that's how you want to be, meet me tomorrow at noon."

"You're on!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Oh, and don't worry. I'll let you down easy," she smirked.

"In your dreams. You'd better be ready to eat my dust."

Many of the ponies around watched the two in confusion as they continued throwing friendly insults at one another.

* * *

A little further away from this spectacle, Scott and Tails were standing over what seemed to be an apple dipping barrel.

"Go on Scott, have a go," Tails said, egging him on.

"Ok ok, just settle down," Scott replied.

Applejack walked over to the two as Scott selected his target.

"Those are Sweet Apple Acres apples just so you know, best apples around," she stated rather proudly.

"Is that so," Scott chuckled.

"Just ask anypony around, they'll tell ya the same thing," she chuckled back.

Scott placed his hands on the side of the barrel, preparing himself.

"Ok," he said to himself before taking in a deep breath.

Scott dived his head into the barrel, moving around a little as he tried to get his teeth wrapped around one of the fruits. He pulled his head back out, an apple clenched firmly in his teeth. Tails noticed Applejack cover her mouth with a hoof, trying to stifle a snicker as she watched onwards. Tails looked over at Scott and noticed something unusual about the particular apple he had, on the bottom of the apple a spring held itself firmly to the fruit. Suddenly the apple jerked back into the water, taking Scott with. It took a second for the hedgehog to reemerge from the water, he came back up with a very unimpressed look on his face.

" ," he growled, shaking some of the water off of himself.

Applejack started laughing uncontrollably as he stepped out of the barrel, Tails couldn't help but laugh along with the pony.

"What the hell was that?" Scot asked.

"Looks like you've just been struck by one of Pinkie Pies many pranks," Applejack said, still laughing.

"Uh huh," Scott replied.

He pulled out the knife Connor had given him earlier and stabbed it into the water. Pulling it back out again, an apple been cleanly pierced through the middle and was now stuck to the blade.

"I prefer my way," Scott stated, taking a bite out of the apple.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Pinkie, who was now standing next to Scott, said.

"I think you can let it go after your little spring trap there," Scott replied, munching away.

The group saw Sally and Twilight approaching. By the smile on her face, it seemed that Sally was enjoying herself.

"Hey Sal," Tails greeted.

"Hello everyone," Sally replied. "Does anyone know if Connor's woken up yet?"

"I haven't seen him yet, so I can't really say," Scott replied.

"We can go back to the library and check up on him if you like," Twilight explained.

"Sounds like a good idea," Sally replied. "I'll catch up with you all again in a bit," she said to the others before walking off with Twilight.

"Wait for me," Pinkie shouted, running to catch up with them.

* * *

It didn't take long for the trio to arrive at the library. Using her magic, Twilight opened the door for everyone. Inside they found Connor sitting at a table, he'd removed his jacket and it hanging on the back of a nearby chair. He had a book spread out on the table in front of him, calmly reading over it. At the same time, he had his metal arm up beside himself. A panel was open on the underside of his forearm, it seemed he was tightening something with a screwdriver that had obviously come from Tails toolkit.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"What does it look like," Connor replied, not looking up from the book.

"There's a party going on right now, why are you stuck in here?" Sally asked.

"I've got work to do."

"What are you reading anyway?" Twilight asked, levitating the book off the table towards herself. "The Theory's of Dimensional Travel?" She read, looking up at Connor afterwards.

"Why would you need to be reading a book like that?" Sally asked.

"Well if the Chaos Emeralds end up being a bust, we're going to need a contingency plan now aren't we," Connor explained, closing the panel on his arm before leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms over his chest.

Sally let out a sigh and placed a hand on her forehead. "I appreciate the work you're doing, but you need to stop and enjoy yourself once in a while," she said to him.

"Can't, gives me to much time to think."

"What does he mean by that?" Twilight whispered to Sally

"Never mind," Sally whispered back.

Connor gave his eyes a rub with his right hand, when he he brought his hand back down and opened his eyes up all he could see was pink.

"Come on you silly filly, now's not the time to be so doomy and gloomy. It's party time! Get excited already!" Said Pinkie Pie, currently with her faced shoved right up against Connors.

Connor pushed Pinkie away from himself and stood up. "Will there be alcohol?" He asked.

"Well, all the children will be in bed by now. So yeah, I guess so," Twilight replied.

"Alright," Connor calmly said, grabbing his jacket off of the chair and slipping it on. "Let's go."

Sally let out a chuckle as she and the others followed Connor out the door.

"He certainly is a strange one," Twilight said.

"Yeah, you get that," Sally replied. "But as he likes to say, it's all part of his charm," she finished with another chuckle.

"Well I like him," Pinkie stated. "Come on everypony, let's go!" She added, galloping off ahead of them.

* * *

As soon as he got to center of town, Connor wasted no time getting up to mischief. He walked along the rooftop he stood upon, carefully watching his target walking through the streets. With his weapon in hand, he prepared himself. His target stopped moving for a moment, Connor seized the moment and leapt from the rooftop. Knuckles just so happened to look up at this time, he could now see Connor jumping towards him; his legs bent back, left arm off to his side and what appeared to be a cream pie placed in his right hand held above his head. Connor reached Knuckles and brought his hand down, splattering the white fluff all over the echidnas face. Connor tucked into a roll and quickly stood back up as Knuckles fell straight onto his bum. Some of the ponies around laughed and cheered at the event, Connor raised his arms above his head victoriously and laughed along with them. A slowly loudening growl quickly caught his attention, he looked down to see Knuckles staring daggers straight at him.

"This is the part where I make my leave," Connor stated, quickly making his exit.

"GET BACK HERE!" Knuckles screamed as he gave chase, all the while Connor laughed hysterically.

"I do hope happenings like that aren't going to be an ongoing occurrence," Rarity, who had seen the whole thing, stated.

"Why not? A few more pranksters around will really liven this place up a bit," Rainbow Dash replied, hovering in the air beside the unicorn.

"Ugh, of course you would say that," Rarity groaned. She stopped to look around herself before turning back to the pegasus. "Say, have you seen Fluttershy anywhere? I don't think I've seen her at all tonight."

"Oh you know how that scaredy pony is, she's probably back at her cottage right now," Dash replied.

"I really do wish that girl would come out her shell someday," Rarity sighed.

"Hah, the day that happens is the day Pinkie Pie stops throwing parties," Rainbow Dash laughed.

"You guys! She's finally here!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly, sticking her head out of a nearby pot plant.

"Who's here?" Dash asked.

Pinkie stuck her head back into the pot and then somehow zipped up next to the two out of nowhere.

"DJ Pon-3 of course, who else could I be talking about," she explained.

"You never even said-" Rarity started.

"Wait wait wait, you got DJ Pon-3 to play!" Dash asked, the excitement evident in her voice.

"Uh huh, she was passing through on her way to Canterlot. She still had a couple of days free, so she agreed to play tonight."

Before she even finished speaking, Rainbow Dash had already disappeared. Obviously making her way to the stage as fast as her wings could take her.

"I didn't even know our dear Rainbow Dash was a fan of hers," Rarity stated, somewhat surprised at Dash' sudden disappearance.

"You need to start paying better attention," Pinkie giggled, skipping away.

Rarity let out a sigh and followed the party pony to the stage.

* * *

The section set out for the dance floor was already rapidly beginning to fill up with the townsponies, taking excitedly amongst themselves as they waited for the music to begin. The moment Vinyl Scratch appeared on stage, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Wasting no time she started up the first track, every pony around immediately started dancing and jumping to the beat.

A further away from the stage, Knuckles finally managed to get the last of the cream off of his face and out of his dreadlocks. He let out a sigh of relief as he wiped away the final speck of cream. His relief was short lived when he felt something splatter all over his, it wasn't hard to tell what it was. He opened his eyes to see Scott and Connor standing beside one another, they both had a big grin on their faces. Scott had obviously been the one to throw it this time, he had a small amount of cream on his hand. Knuckles glared at the two and started growling angrily.

"Run, run run run," Scott laughed as he Connor immediately legged it out of there.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU TWO," Knuckles shouted, running after the two.

Back at the dance floor, Sonic had joined in on the action. He was now currently break dancing on the middle of the floor, many of the ponies cheering him on as he went.

"I certainly ain't seen no pony dance like that before," Applejack, sitting a little bit back from the floor, noted.

"I have, far to many times," Tails chuckled.

Connor and Scott approached the two, slapping a high five and snickering to themselves.

"What are you two up to?" Tails asked.

"Oh nothing, just hiding from Knuckles," Connor replied with a grin.

"If he catches us we're dead, you do realize that right," Scott chuckled.

"If, being the operative word there," Connor said.

Tails rolled his eyes and quietly laughed to himself, catching Applejacks attention. He waved his hand in front of himself, telling her not to worry about it.

"So how are you two going anyway?" Applejack asked.

"Ask me again after another five of these," Connor replied, jiggling his drink in front of himself.

"I'm surprised you still have a liver Connor, your alcohol tolerance isn't natural," Scott said to him.

"Would being from Australia have anything to do with it? Although if I recall correctly, it's called Downunda now."

"And yet you don't have the accent,"

Tails chuckled.

Connor went silent for a moment before clearing his throat. "G'day, how're you all goin'," he said in, what was more or less, a perfect Aussie accent. "Ha, still got it!" He said, dropping the accent and pumping his fist in front if himself.

Tails and Scott laughed at the random performance. Applejack stared at Connor, a smirk making its way onto her face as she waited for him to look at her.

"I like your accent," she joked, copying Connor from their first encounter.

"Ooh, cheeky," Connor laughed. "I like you," he added. "Always good when someone knows how to take a joke."

"Who knows how to take a joke?" Twilight asked, walking up to the group.

"Applejack here," Connor explained. "I was just demonstrating the language of my people," he joked, making Twilight raise an eyebrow.

"Don't worry about it," Applejack chuckled, shaking her head.

"There you are!" They heard a voice shout in the distance. The group turned to find Knuckles walking towards them.

"Time to go," Scott pointed out.

"Yep," Connor quickly agreed. The two wasted no time dashing away.

"What happened to you?" Tails asked, noticing the white substance on Knuckles face when he got to them.

"I don't want to talk about," Knuckles growled, wiping the cream from his face.

"Alright then," Twilight said slowly. She turned towards the dance floor, watching all of the townsponies dancing to the beat blasting from Vinyl Scratch's speakers. Sonic was still going, showing no sign of slowing down. "So why aren't you all dancing?" She asked, turning back to the others.

"Don't really feel like it," Tails answered.

"Yeah, what he said," Applejack agreed.

"Suit yourself," Twilight said before walking over to the dancing area.

"Since when does Twilight dance?" Pinkie Pie asked, popping up next to Applejack.

"Beats me," the farm pony replied.

Knuckles looked over to his left to find Sally now walking up to them. She had a quizzical look on her face.

"What are Scott and Connor up to?" She asked. "They just ran past me giggling like school children." She heard a growl come from Knuckles, looking over at him she saw the cream evident in his face. "Oh," she said understandingly.

The group had a good laugh at Knuckles misfortune, much to the echidnas annoyance. For a while, the group sat where they were. Having a few laughs and some stories, all while listening to the music of the one and only DJ Pon-3. An hour later the party was still going strong, although some of the townsponies had retreated to their beds. Sonic, Twilight and Rarity had now joined the group, joining in on the laughs and the stories. Connor and Scott started walking towards the group, for obvious reasons Knuckles was the first to spot them. He quick to start storming towards the two.

"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down big guy," Connor said, holding his hands in front of himself. Knuckles stopped walking and stood his ground. "We're not gonna hit you with anymore cream, alright."

"And how do I know I can trust you two?" Knuckles growled.

"We promise we won't do it anymore, ok," Scott said to him.

"Fine then. But if you do, you'd better sleep with one eye open," Knuckles replied.

"Ok ok," Connor chuckled. "Oh, I almost forgot. Pinkie Pie was saying she had a surprise for you," he added.

"Ok then, where is she?" Knuckles asked.

"Right behind you."

Knuckles turned around to face Pinkie, only to yet again receive another cream pie to the face.

"Surprise!" Pinkie yelled, holding her fore hooves in the air.

"AW COME ON!" Knuckles screamed. He wiped the cream from his eyes just in time to see Connor, Scott and Pinkie running away, laughing as they went. The others watched as he gave chase after the three tricksters, shouting at them the whole way. It took a while for them stop laughing, they did honestly feel quite sorry for Knuckles; but it was all really just to rich.

"I wouldn't to be them if Knuckles ends up getting back at them," Sonic said, still trying to stop laughing.

"I'll second that," Tails chuckled.

A few of them started letting out yawns, it was starting to get rather late and bed was beginning to seem like a very good idea.

"I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I'm gonna hit the hay," Applejack said, giving her eyes a rub.

"I think I'll have agree with you on that," Tails replied. "This was fun, I hope we get to do it again," he added.

The others voiced their agreement before saying their goodbyes. With everything said and done, they all started making their way home. It had certainly been a night to remember. Off in the distance, the all to familiar sound of cream hitting someone's face could be heard. This was shortly followed by the angry screams of Knuckles and laughter of the three tricksters, that Echidna just couldn't catch a break.

**And there you have it, one party done and dusted. What did everyone think? Was it good? Funny? Shithouse? Let me know.**

**As for Sonic and Rainbow Dash, there has to be a race now doesn't there. Get two people who are known for some sort of amazing feat, of course they're going to want to see who's the best. But that's for next time. And what about Knuckles do you think he'll try and get some payback?**

**Until next time.**

**Catchya :)**


	4. Race day (Kinda)

**(A/N) Well, I don't really have anything to say this time. So let's just get right into the next chapter.**

Into a New World

Another day had passed and another day had just begun. Tails walked through town, having just had breakfast which consisted of pancakes from SugarCube corner; he was now checking up on all of his friends. Everyone but Connor had been accounted for, knowing the human he was probably passed out in a random location. Having once found him one morning in the broom closet at Castle Acorn after a party the night before, Tails figured anything could be possible. He'd asked his friends and the ponies he'd gotten to know if they knew where he was, unfortunately none of them had seen him since the party from the night before. Not even Pinkie had any idea, even though she seemed to know where every person in town was at any given time. It was at this moment he found Applejack making her way through town, her saddle bags were filled with an assortment of items; obviously having just bought several supplies in town. Tails walked up to the farm pony to strike up a conversation.

"Well howdy sugarcube, how are you doing this morning?" Applejack greeted.

"Pretty good thank you," Tails replied. "You wouldn't happen to have seen Connor anywhere would you."

A smirk made its way onto Applejacks face. "Why as a matter of fact, I have," she said. "If you come with me, I can take ya to him."

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that," Tails thanked her.

"Well c'mon then, let's get goin'."

The two made their way out if town and into what appeared to be a large apple orchid. Tails was taken back by the sheer size of place. Living in Mobotropolis for most his life, he'd never actually seen a fruit farm with his own eyes.

"Wow Applejack, this is quite impressive," he noted.

"Well thank ya kindly, my family's owned this farm dating back to when Granny Smith first built the place," Applejack explained.

"Connor actually mentioned something about your grandmother," Tails said. "Is true that she was one of the few who helped bring Ponyville about."

"She sure did. There's a lot more to her than most ponies first realize," Applejack chuckled.

"So you said you knew where Connor is?" Tails said, changing the subject to the matter at hand.

"That I did, give me a sec to drop off my bags," Applejack replied. She dropped her saddle bags off at what appeared to be her house before turning back to the fox. "Alright then, follow me."

She led Tails to the barn, pushing the door open and walking inside. Tails followed her in and gazed around the room, finding no sign of his friend.

"So where is he?" He asked.

"Look up there," Applejack chuckled.

In the barn, another floor had been built in. There's was a small staircase leading up to it, the floor only spanned about half the length of the barn. Over the edge of the floor, Tails could see an arm hanging over. The sleeve of a black leather jacket gave away who it was.

"Oh boy," Tails sighed, earning another chuckle from Applejack.

He walked up the stairs with the farm pony following behind. He found Connor lying belly down on the floor, his head facing Tails and his arm, as they'd seen earlier, hanging over the edge.

"Connor, time to wake up," Tails said him, getting silence in response. He gave the human a light kick, still getting nothing. "Ugh, wait here," he said to Applejack.

Tails walked down the stairs and left the barn. He came back short while later carrying a bucket of water with him. He approached Connor and dumped the buckets contents straight over his head. Connor let out shout, and rolled straight over the edge of the floor. The other heard a thud on the ground bellow.

"Ow," Connor bluntly said.

"How are you feeling?" Tails asked as he and Applejack walked back down the stairs.

"Like I'm recovering from an autopsy," Connor replied, lying on the ground.

Tails held out a hand and helped Connor to his feet. Connor stumbled forward a couple of paces, he took another step back as he gathered his bearings.

"Could everyone not talk to loudly please," he asked. "Or walk to loudly, or slam any doors. Just think nice quiet thoughts," he added, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"I really don't see why you do this to yourself if you're going to pay for it in the morning," Tails chuckled.

"It's all part of the experience," Connor replied, dropping his hands down to his side again.

"Well I don't plan on experiencing it anytime soon if your current state is anything to go by," Applejack stated.

"Suit yourself," Connor said, groaning a little as he stretched his arms out to his side. "So, where's a good place in town to get something to eat?" He asked.

"Well actually, I was about to head inside for breakfast with the family. You're welcome to join us if you like, Granny Smith loves having guests," Applejack explained.

"Sounds good, and thank you," Connor replied. "I'll see you later on Tails," he said, leaving the barn with the farm pony.

"Now what to do?" Tails thought to himself.

* * *

Back in town, Knuckles was making an attempt to get some payback from the night before. He'd found Scott snoozing on park bench near the pond, his left hand hanging off to his side and his right resting on his chest. Knuckles had Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie with, he'd decided to leave Pinkie alone having received some advice from Dash to never try and prank Ponvilles resident party pony. Apparently unless your a pro, which Knuckles was not, any attempts were bound to fail completely. Knuckles squatted down and sprayed some whipped cream into Scott's hand, a fitting choice all things considered, and grabbed the feather he'd brought with him. He tickled Scott's nose lightly with the feather, the two ponies snickered in anticipation. Scott brushed the feather away with his right hand, making the echidna huff in annoyance. Knuckles tried again, receiving the same result. He tried one final time, Scott's cream filled hand moved slightly before Knuckles stopped the tickling. With a mischievous grin, Knuckles started tickling his nose constantly. Scott's hand rose up, and splattered the cream Knuckles in face.

"Argh! I give up!" Knuckles shouted angrily, causing the two ponies with him to start laughing uncontrollably.

"Word of advice," Scott said, opening one of his eyes. "Make sure your targets asleep first."

Knuckles stormed off, muttering angrily to himself.

"Oh, that was too good," Rainbow Dash said, finally managing to calm herself down.

"So what's on the agenda for you two today?" Scott asked, moving himself so he was sitting on the bench.

"Haven't you heard?" Pinkie said excitedly. "Rainbow Dash is going to race Sonic today!"

"Really?"

"Yep, that hedgehog is going down," Dash stated, rubbing a hoof against her chest before stretching it out and looking at it.

"I wouldn't start bragging until after the race," Scott replied. "You never know what might happen."

"Pff whatever, there's no way I can lose this. Sonic just doesn't know it yet."

"I mean, come on. Rainbow Dash can break the 'Color Barrier'," Pinkie cut in.

"The what Barrier?" Scott asked.

"It's the 'Color Barrier', Not the 'What Barrier'. You really need to listen more closely."

"Right," Scott replied slowly. "So when is this race?"

"Noon today," Dash replied.

"Well we've still got an hour or two, I should probably go smooth things over with Knuckles. I don't really want to wake up one night to find him standing over my bed. I'll see you two later."

* * *

About half an hour later off by the Carousel Boutique, Sally Acorn walked towards the building. She'd heard about Rarity's business and was interested to see some of the ponies designs, for once her information had come from someone other than Connor. The door to the shop burst open as she was reaching for the doorknob, three fillies ran out and made their way into town.

"I'm terribly sorry about that," a voice apologized as Sally watched the girls heading away. She turned back around to find Rarity standing in the doorway. "Those fillies can be a little too eager sometimes," she added.

"Who are they? And what are they doing?" Sally asked.

"Well one of them is my sister, Sweetie Bell. The others are Applebloom, Applejacks sister, and their friend Scootaloo," Rarity explained. "Their off to try and earn their Cutie Marks again."

"What's a Cutie Mark?"

Rarity turned so Sally could see the image on her flank. "This is a Cutie Mark. We get them when we discover that one thing that makes us special. I gather your kind don't get them."

"No, the only thing remotely close to it would be a tattoo."

"I see. Now then, is there anything I can do for you?"

"I just came along to see your shop."

Rarity's eyes seemed to light up after that statement, it actually made Sally somewhat uncomfortable. She felt a sudden grip on her hand begin dragging her through the door, looking down she found her hand encased in Rarity's magical aura.

"A Princess, in my store! How exciting!" Rarity squeaked.

"Please don't call me Princess, Rarity," Sally groaned, unfortunately the said pony didn't hear her.

"So what can I make for you darling? Something to compliment your figure?"

"Uh, Rarity-," Sally began to protest.

"Perhaps something that would look nice with that beautiful mane of yours."

"RARITY!" Sally shouted, startling the fashionista. "I only came her to see your shop, I don't need anything made."

"Oh, of course. I see," Rarity chuckled nervously. "I do apologize, I believe I just caught up in the moment."

"It's alright," Sally laughed. "Perhaps you could show me some of your designs."

"Of course, right this way," the pony happily replied, leading Sally to a few mannequins.

* * *

It was now noon, everyone in town had heard about the race between Sonic and Rainbow Dash and were now gathering by the starting line. The starting line had been situated just in from the outskirts town, the start of the track lead outside of the entrance into Ponyville. Sonic stood on the road stretching his legs, Rainbow dash doing the same but with her wings instead. Pinkie Pie was jumping up and down cheering for her pony friend, wearing what appeared to be a cheerleaders outfit.

"Where's my support?" Sonic joked, turning to his friends.

"Yay, go Sonic," Scott lazily said, pumping his fist in the air just as lazily. Sonic rolled his eyes and shook his head at Scott's lack of enthusiasm.

"So do you two remember the rules?" Twilight asked, approaching the racers.

"Yeah yeah, follow the course, no shortcuts blah blah blah," Dash replied.

"And no flying higher than Sonics height, we need to keep this fair."

"Ok Twilight, no need to get so worked up about the rules," Dash laughed.

"I'm not late am I?" Another voice asked, the southern accent immediately gave away who it was.

"No you're not late Applejack, you're right on time actually," Twilight replied. "You haven't seen Fluttershy anywhere though have you?"

"She's probably in the woods again," Applejack sighed. "I'll go get her."

"Make it quick if you can," Sonic shouted after her.

"Feel free to start without me," Applejack shouted back.

* * *

Out in the woods Fluttershy could be found gathering flowers and placing them in a basket. A bird flew over her head and hovered in front of her.

"Oh, hello mister hummingbird. How are you today?," she greeted. The bird chirped in response. Most people, or ponies, wouldn't have understood a bit of that, but for whatever reason Fluttershy seemed to be able to communicate with animals on a completely different level. "Well that's nice, I'm good as well thank you."

Fluttershy placed another bunch of flowers into her basket, she brought her head up to find one of Eggmans machines standing in front of her. She jumped back, fear immediately taking ahold of her. For a moment both of them were silent, the machine not making a noise and Fluttershy to scared to do anything. She got a good look of what the robot looked like. It was slender just like the ones from before, it's head the same sort of shape as Connors; it had two glowing red circles on its face for eyes. Finally the machine spoke.

"Orders received, subject is to be captured and moved to mobile facility for further investigation."

The robot took a step forward, Fluttershy took one back. The machine took one more step and Fluttershy sprinted off in the opposite direction, screaming as she went.

* * *

"Fluttershy? Fluttershy, where are ya?" Applejack shouted as she made her way through the woods. A scream matching the voice of the element of kindness rang out through the trees. "Hold on Fluttershy! Ahm comin'!" Applejack shouted before sprinting off in the direction where the scream came from.

Weaving through the trees, ducking and jumping over branches she went; nothing was going to stop her from reaching her extremely distressed friend. Applejack made it to a clearing and found Fluttershy running her way. The yellow pony ran up to her and hid behind her, shaking fearfully.

"What in the hay is going on?" Applejack asked, turning to Fluttershy.

"O-Over there," Fluttershy replied, pointing a hoof ahead.

Applejack turned back around to find several robots walking into the clearing. They stopped at the tree line and simply stared at the two.

"Y'all stay the heck away from us!" Applejack growled.

Some sort of handle popped up up between the shoulders of the machines. Each of them reached back and pulled the handle up, drawing a blade out with it. With swords in hand, the machines began to approach the two ponies. The sound of something flying through the air caught everyone's attention. Two of the machines were suddenly picked up off the ground and sent flying head first into a couple of trees. Connor slowed down from his trajectory and pulled up, coming to a stop hovering above Applejack and Fluttershy.

"So, you want to play," he said through his mask, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Priority one target confirmed," one of the robots stated.

"I certainly hope you're ready," Connor said, looking down at Applejack.

"I guess we're about to find out," Applejack replied.

Some of the robots darted forwards, running towards their targets. Connor and Applejack followed suit, charging towards the opposition.

Applejack ducked underneath a wild swing from one of the machines. The robot turned around only to receive the full force of a buck from the farmer pony. Years of apple bucking had significantly strengthened Applejacks legs, the force of the buck was enough to cave the robots chest in; crushing its power core and deactivating it. She ran out the way of a few more attacks and pulled out her lasso. With the rope clenched firmly in her teeth she tossed it ahead, managing to rope one of them around the neck. She gave it a tug, pulling the robot to ground before starting to spin. Applejack span around, swinging the machine with it and hitting any bot that got to close. Due to having a weaker structure compared to an average Swatbot, the impact from each blow was enough to cause serious damage to each machine unlucky enough to be caught in the swing. Eventually the head of the robot with the lasso tightened around its neck popped off, sending its body flying into one of its allies.

Connor deactivated his jetpack and it folded into his back, dropping him out of the air. He began sprinting the moment he hit the ground, drawing two of his knives as he ran. He threw the knife in his left hand, impaling a bot through the head. Another machine took a swing, Connor ducked and stretched his right arm out. His knife tore through its chest as he let himself fall forwards, taking the bot with. In one fluid motion, he let his knife go, picked up the sword and continued running. With the blade held firmly in his right hand, he leapt into the air. As he came back down to the ground he cleaved the head off of another bot, rolling when he landed. He stretched his body out and sliced his sword diagonally upwards as he came out the roll, slicing another one in two from its waist to its shoulder. Connor spun around and threw the sword ahead, knocking one of them clean off of its feet as it was impaled through the chest. He rolled out of the way as another bot swung downwards at him, quickly pouncing on top of it after sword dug into the dirt. One heavy punch from his metal hand is all it took to crush its head. Connor grabbed its body by its shoulders and stood up, swinging around as he did so. Letting it go, its body was sent flying into another two. The few behind them stood their ground and stared at Connor. He pulled out another two knives and spread his arms out to his side, spreading his legs apart and crouching slightly as well to prepare himself.

"Well come on! Who's next!" He barked at the machines. The bots still didn't move.

"Orders received, all units will retreat immediately," one of them finally spoke.

Wings shot out from their backs and they quickly flew off, leaving Connor and the two ponies on the ground. Connor turned around just in time to see Applejack bucking one last machine to pieces. He removed his mask and pulled his smokes out of his pocket. He lit one up as he approached the two, picking his knives up along the way.

"You two alright?" He asked.

"We're fine thank ya kindly," Applejack replied, wiping some sweat from her forehead.

Connor turned to Fluttershy just in time to see a yellow blur knock him to ground. Fluttershy held him in a death grip of a hug on the ground as she quietly thanked him over and over again.

"I didn't do all the work you know, there's someone else you should thank as well," Connor said to her.

"Of course, thank you so much Applejack," Fluttershy said, turning her head to face her pony friend. Applejack gave her a nod in response.

"So... do you want to get off me now?" Connor said to the pony still holding him tightly. Fluttershy let out a squeak and quickly jumped off of him, allowing him to stand up.

"Um s-sorry," she said to him.

"It's alright," Connor chuckled. "Good work out there," he said, looking at Applejack.

"Thank ya very much," she replied. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

Connor let out a quiet laugh before replying. "Training mostly, but a lot of it I make up on the spot," he chuckled. "As for the knives and sword though, that comes with plenty practice. Quite a few people thought I was weird for learning how to fight with a sword, they can shove it for all I care right about now."

"Fair enough, but what I want to know is why they would attack Fluttershy in the first place."

"My guess is that they were just scouting the area, doing a bit of recon work. And if I know Eggman, when they found Fluttershy he probably wanted her taken back to his base so he could get a better understanding of your species."

"Those... things, did say something along those lines," Fluttershy explained. "I'm just lucky you two came along when you did."

"Anypony messes with my friends, they better be ready to deal with me," Applejack stated.

"So what's everyone doing now?" Connor asked.

"The race between Sonic and Rainbow Dash is today, I was actually coming to find Fluttershy here so we could go watch."

"Oh my goodness, is that today? I completely forgot, I'm so sorry," Fluttershy apologized.

"It's alright sugarcube," Applejack replied. "So are you coming?" She asked Connor.

"Ugh, another display of Sonics ego? No thanks, I think I'll give it a miss."

"Suit yourself. C'mon Fluttershy, if we're quick we can catch the end of the race."

* * *

Back in Ponyville, the race was nearing its end. Sonic and Rainbow Dash had been neck to neck throughout the entire race. Neither of them seemed to have gained any form of lead at all on one another. It was about this time that Applejack and Fluttershy finally turned up. They were quick to tell the Mobians and their friends what had happened in the woods. Needless to say, they were rather alarmed. Their fears were settled when they found out it was just a scouting party and not another attack.

"So where's Connor now?" Scott asked.

"He flew off shortly after we left," Applejack explained.

"I wish he would at least try and be a little more social," Sally sighed.

"He wanted me to let you know, he'll be more social when it isn't at an event that involves Sonic trying to prove he's better than everypony else," Applejack added. That made Sally's eyebrows rise. "His words, not mine," Applejack chuckled. "He said you'd say something along those lines."

"Connor knowing how people are going to react can get a little annoying sometimes," Knuckles stated.

"Tell me about it," Tails groaned.

"They're coming! They're coming!" Pinkie shouted excitedly, jumping up and down as she pointed at something down the track.

Sure enough, coming down the road everyone could see a cloud of dust slowly approaching. In the blink of an eye, a blur sped past; the string on the poles of the finish line snapped and the camera set up to catch the results went off with a flash. Once the dust cleared, Sonic and Dash could be seen panting heavily in front of the finish line. The crowd erupted with cheers and applause, drowning out any other noise.

"So who won?" Dash shouted over the crowd at Twilight.

Twilight levitated the photo in front of herself and carefully studied it. After a few seconds, a smirk appeared on her face. She approached the two racers, the smirk still on her face. She turned the photo around so that they could see it.

"It's a tie," she chuckled.

"WHAT?!" Sonic and Rainbow Dash both exclaimed at the same time.

Dash jumped into the air and snatched the photo out of Twilights magical grip, holding it firmly in her hoofs as she hovered above the ground. Sure enough, Sonics head could seen crossing the finish at the exact moment Dash's hooves did.

"But... I gave it my all," Rainbow Dash glumly said, dropping out of the air and falling straight onto her rump.

"I don't meet many people as fast as me, and that's saying something," Sonic stated.

"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash said, raising an eyebrow.

"Heck yeah," Sonic chuckled. "You weren't kidding when you said you were fast."

Dash got up off the ground and hovered in the air again.

"Well, I guess you aren't too bad yourself," she said, making it sound as half hearted as possible. A smirk appeared on her face. "Round two?"

"You're on."

It only took a second for the two to disappear again. Where they went no one knew, considering they weren't taking the same route as they did for the race earlier.

"Well, I suppose that takes care of that," Tails said with a shrug.

"That it does," Rarity agreed.

"So what are you all going to do now?" Twilight asked.

"I'm afraid I have to leave you all now, I have some work I must catch up on," Rarity explained.

"Yeah I need to get going as well, those apple trees ain't gonna buck themselves," Applejack was next to say.

"Ok then, we'll see you two later," Sally said to them.

The group said their goodbyes to the two and began making their way through town. They got the town center when something caught Knuckles eye.

"What in the hell is he doing?" Knuckles said, looking up at the town hall.

The others followed his gaze to the top of the building. What they saw was Connor standing atop the roof, his right foot on top of the pole and his left resting behind it. His arms were hanging down along his sides, helping him keep his balance. He appeared to be gazing around the town, taking in all he could see.

"Hey Connor! What are you doing?" Scott shouted.

Connor looked down at the group before slipping his mask on. He jumped off from his position, moving into a front flip as he fell. At the last second wings folded out and the thrusters activated, bringing him to a hovering halt above the ground. The jetpack cut out and the wings folded back in, allowing Connor to drop to the ground and take his mask off.

"What were you doing up there?" Twilight asked.

"Getting a better layout of the town," Connor explained. "I want to be prepared if everything ever goes south."

"Why are you always so paranoid?" Knuckles chuckled.

"I'd rather be paranoid than dead," Connor replied, almost sounding somewhat annoyed. "Unless of course you disagree," he added, taking a step towards the echidna.

"Alright cool it," Sally quickly said, placing a hand on Connors chest to stop him.

"Don't doubt my methods," Connor said after a brief pause, taking a step back as he did. "They've saved my ass more times than I care to count."

"Alright alright," Knuckles said, holding his hands up. "That came out wrong, I wasn't trying to make you angry."

"Alright then," Connor sighed, rubbing the side of his face. Out of the blue, his metal arm suddenly fell limp. "Ah hell!" He growled, trying to move his limb without any success.

"What just happened?" Twilight asked.

"It's been needing a good repair for a while now," Connor replied. "Something always seems to come up or I just simply forget though."

"Do you want me to give it a bit of a once over?" Tails offered.

"That'd be good, you mind giving me a hand here."

Tails helped Connor remove his leather jacket, holding on to it once it was off. Connor next worked the arm out of the sleeve of his shirt, he kept his shirt on and brought the bottom of it up so it was resting on his left shoulder. Getting a better look at it now, everyone could see it was his entire arm that was robotic and ended at the shoulder. Connor opened up a panel on his upper arm and reached the fingers of his right hand inside. It looked as though he got a grip of something and gave it a twist, a soft clicking sound emanating from within the arm confirmed it.

"So what are you doing now?" Twilight asked.

"Most machines need a power source to run. Be it oil, fuel or even electricity," Connor explained. "My robotic arm and leg are actually connected to my cardiovascular system, my own blood acts as their fuel source. The blood runs through some tubes that act like veins inside the limbs, and what I'm doing now is disconnecting the blood flow to my arm."

"That's... incredible!" Twilight gasped.

"It's what happens when science and medicine come together," Connor chuckled half heartedly.

He took his fingers out of his arm and closed the panel. Next thing he did was get a firm grip on the limb with his right hand and give it a hard twist, the arm let out a soft hiss and was easily pulled off. Connor held the arm in his hand and looked it over, handing it to Tails once he was finished.

"I'll have this fixed up in no time," Tails declared.

"I can help if you want me to you know," Connor replied.

"Nah, it's all good. I still owe you a favor anyway, call this my way of returning it."

"Suit yourself," Connor said as he watched the fox walk off, obviously going to get his tools.

He pulled his shirt back down and searched around for his jacket, finding Scott holding it out to him. Connor took the jacket and slipped his arm through the sleeve, pulling the other side over his shoulder. He fumbled around with the zip for a short moment, trying and failing to zip the jacket up. Eventually Sally came forward and did it up for him.

"Thanks," he said glumly.

"Not a problem, we all help each other out," she replied.

"Anyway," Connor said, clearing his throat. "I'm gonna go for a walk," he stated, walking away.

"I'll come with you, my legs could use a stretch," Scott said, jogging to catch up with him.

The others watched the two disappear down the road before turning back to each other.

"It's nice to see you all looking after one another," Fluttershy said, finally speaking her first words to the others.

"We all need each other for one thing or another," Sally explained. "Sometimes more than we like to admit."

"This is all getting a little too touchy feely for me," Knuckles stated, completely killing the D&M they had going. "Anyone hungry?"

"Ugh, of course you'd ruin the moment Knuckles," Sally sighed, chuckling at the same time.

"I could eat," Twilight replied.

"The Cakes are trying out some new recipes at SugarCube corner," Pinkie explained, sounding a little more excited than anyone should be about sweet food. "They want me to do the taste testing, I'm sure they won't mind you guys helping."

"Well, why not," Knuckles shrugged. "It's actually been a while since I've had anything along the lines of a cupcake."

He felt a small spark of fear rise up somewhere inside of him when Pinkie Pie let out a gasp and appeared directly in front of him, two blue eyes filling his vision.

"How long has it been since you've had a cupcake?!" The pink one demanded.

"Um... quite a while," Knuckles replied weakly.

The next thing he felt were two hooves on his back, charging him forwards in the direction of SugarCube Corner.

"Out of the way," Pinkie shouted to the ponies passing by. "This is a cupcake emergency!"

Back with the others, Sally stood dumbfounded at what had just happened.

"She's always been like that, right?" She asked Fluttershy and Twilight.

"For as long as we've known her," Fluttershy giggled.

"Don't worry Sally, it's because of moments like this that we've come love Pinkie Pie," Twilight explained.

"I can understand that, I think it's going to take a while to get used to though," Sally replied.

They laughed merrily amongst themselves as the two ponies told Sally a few more stories of Pinkies eccentricities. The laughter only came to a stop when a blur made of two shades of blue sped by, covering them in dust. Sonic and Rainbow Dash' names were both shouted angrily at the dust cloud leaving town.

**Yeah, I didn't really know how to do the race so I hope the rest of this suffices. I am picking on Knuckles a bit so I guess it's about time I laid off on the poor guy haha. He really does seem like an easy target though doesn't he.**

**Now then, let me know what you thought. Is there anything you want to see in later chapters? Feel free to let me know. And as always, have a good one. Don't just have a good day, have a good life :)**

**Oh, and a shout out to Sora the Ultrahog, he's now started his first recreation story. It's called, Infamous (Hero Path). So if you're a fan of Infamous, a fan of Sora's or just want something to read. Then I recommend you check it out, it's pretty awesome so far.**

**Catchya :)**


	5. Night Terrors & the Start of a Trip

**(A/N) Let's get right into replying to those reviews**

** Sora the Ultrahog: You don't need to thank me for the shout out, you did the same for me and you've been a loyal reader/reviewer thus far. Just returning the favor my friend :) And Sora, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.**

**Gold the Fox: Now the last thing we need on our hands is a war about who's faster! Glad it didn't happen. Yeah I'm gonna leave Knuckles alone now... at least for the moment (insert evil laugh here). Yeah very funny haha, thanks for understanding though :). And as for Tails, don't worry I'll make sure I give him his moment to shine.**

**Christian Wolf99/werewolf lover99 (whatever you're calling yourself these days): please oh please stop putting your OC's in the reviews. I asked what people wanted to see next, as in events. I didn't say anything about OC's, so please stop jumping the gun. This is the last time I'm going to be polite about this.**

**Now then, onwards to the next chapter.**

Cold, numbness and pain, that is all he could feel. The pain coursed throughout his body, any movement in the slightest resulted in an eruption of agonizing hurt. The smell of medical alcohol and the iron scent of blood wafted in the air, making for a gut churning stench. Breathing alone was a problem, a sharp burning sensation filled his throat with each breath. His eyes were heavy and difficult to open, as if they had been shut for years. His eyelids eventually spread apart, only for his eyes to be assaulted with a blinding light. He groaned, snapping them shut again before slowly making another attempt. Everything was a blur to begin with, it was impossible to tell where he was. Gradually his vision cleared, he could make out that he was in some sort of room. Several tables lined the walls of the room, the contents atop them were hidden from view underneath sheets. He tried to move his arms, his right felt as though it were strapped down; his left had no feeling in it whatsoever. It took only seconds to realize he was strapped down onto a steel table, making it impossible to move any of his limbs; his head was the only thing he could move around. Ignoring the pain it brought with it, he began turning his head to gaze around the room. It was still difficult to make everything out as his vision still had not fully cleared, he did notice something out of the corner of his eyes, something that made his breath freeze in his throat. He shakily turned his head to his front, looking down at his own chest. He couldn't help but whimper in fear and confusion at the sight before him. His chest was laid wide open, a set of spreaders holding the flesh apart. He could see his own heart beating away in his chest, its pace rapidly quickening as fear sank in. His lungs inflated and deflated with every breath, adding to the horrifying sight. Eventually it all became to much, a scream of pure horror erupting from his throat. He thrashed from side to side, trying his best to break free from his restraints. The doors to the room burst open as two people rushed inside, he couldn't quite make out anything noticeable about either of them.

"Oh shit! He's awake, he shouldn't be awake!" One of them shouted.

"Shut up already and sedate him! He'll kill himself if we don't hurry!" The other shouted back.

In an instance he felt someone holding him down, putting a stop to his screams and his struggles. Not a second after, something sharp was jabbed straight into his neck. Everything slowly began to fade away into darkness.

"How do you know he'll even survive any of this?" One of figures asked the other.

"He'll survive, I know he will," the other replied. "The body will heal, the mind though... the mind is not so resilient."

* * *

Connor woke with a startle, letting out a sharp inwards gasp as he jerked forwards. He went to rub his face with his left hand before remembering something very important, he let out a groan and used his right hand instead. Dropping his hand back down, he took in his surroundings. It seemed he'd fallen asleep in one of the chairs in Twilights library, reading one of the many books on offer. The blanket covering him hadn't been there before, he figured Twilight must have draped if over him before she decided to retire for the night herself. A familiar and very unwelcome feeling suddenly tickled Connors throat, he was quick to jump to his feet and race for the bathroom. He got to the toilet and lifted the seat just in the knick of time, the contents of his stomach emptying into the bowl. He spit out the remainder of the sick left in his mouth before letting out a disgusted grunt. After flushing the toilet and getting to his feet, rinsing the horrid taste out of his mouth with water from the tap was a much welcome relief. Connor placed his hand on his chest where the particular scar was, his body was covered in numerous scars; but some held more significance than others. Waking up during one of the operations to repair his body was definitely one of them. The scar remained as a reminder, the memory a continuous nightmare.

"Are you alright?" A voice asked, Connor turned his head towards the doorway to find Twilight standing just out of it.

"I-I'm fine," Connor replied, walking past the pony and back out into the main floor of the library.

"Was it something you ate? I could hear you from up in my room," Twilight said, following him out.

"No, it's," Connor started, pausing to clear his throat. "It's something personal."

Twilight gave him an understanding nod, choosing to remain silent. She watched as he picked his jacket up off of a nearby chair, slipping his arm into the sleeve and bringing the other side up over his shoulder. He fumbled around with the zip for a short moment, turning to face Twilight after several unsuccessful attempts to do the zip up.

"Um, would you mind?" He asked uncertainly.

Twilight gave him a warm smile and used her magic to do the zip up for him.

"Thanks," he said quietly. There was a brief moment of silence between the two, neither of them knowing what they could say. "Well, I'm gonna go for a walk," Connor explained.

"Really? It's three in the morning, Celestia hasn't even raised the sun yet," Twilight replied.

"Yeah well, I won't be getting back to sleep any time soon. Besides, I like the night sky."

"I'm sure Luna would be thrilled to hear you say that," Twilight chuckled.

"I'll have to let her know next time I see her then. I'll see you later Twilight," Connor replied, making his way out the door.

Twilight watched as he left, wondering what he could possibly do to occupy himself this early in the morning. She made her way over to the table Connor had been asleep in front if earlier to put the book away he'd been reading. Noticing it was a book from the Daring Do series, she couldn't help but quietly laugh to herself; remember the shenanigans that went down when Rainbow Dash became a fan of the series.

"Twilight? What's going on?" A sleepy voice asked.

Twilight turned towards the stairs, finding Spike standing at the top; rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"It's nothing spike. Go back to bed, I'll be up shortly," Twilight replied.

Spike turned around and walked out of sight, obviously going back to bed as Twilight had said. She levitated the book back into its section on the bookshelf before making her way back up the stairs, walking to her bed and falling straight to sleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

* * *

The sun had now risen, the residents of Ponyville were happily going about their daily tasks. Tails made his way through town as he headed towards the library, Connors robotic arm held firmly in his hands. He knew Connor had been at the library reading the night before, and knowing him he'd probably fallen asleep in the process. Tails laid two heavy knocks on the door and waited for a reply. It wasn't his human friend who answered the door though, rather the violet pony who ran the library.

"Oh, good morning Tails. How can I help you?" Twilight greeted.

"Hello again Twilight," Tails replied. "I was looking for Connor, have you seen him?"

"He left earlier this morning," Twilight explained. "Is that his arm?"

"I figure he's going to want it back," Tails chuckled.

"Yes he's seemed a little, uh, unhappy lately."

"Yeah, so do you know where he is?"

"No sorry. Like I said, he left earlier and that's about all I can tell you."

"I'd better go find him then," Tails sighed.

"Hold on, I'll come with you. There's a few things I need to get in town anyway," Twilight replied.

The two made their way away from the library and back into town. It took a little bit if searching, but after they received some help from Rainbow Dash they found Connor pretty quickly. They found him sitting on a tree branch, his back resting against the trees main body as he smoked a cigarette. Sally and Rainbow Dash had now joined the other two, Sally had been talking to Dash when Tails and Twilight enlisted the cyan ponies help.

"Hey Connor, you wanna come down here for a second," Tails shouted up to him.

Connor peered down at him before letting himself drop from the branch he was seated upon. He landed on the ground with a thud and stood up straight, stretching his back out as he did.

"How did you go with it?" He asked Tails.

"Quite well actually," the fox replied. "I just had to fix a few wires and change a few parts, all the pieces left over from those Swatbots certainly came in handy. It should be working just fine now."

"Alright then, let's do this," Connor answered, sitting himself down on the ground and resting his back against the base of the tree.

"Why do you need to sit down?" Twilight asked.

"So I don't fall over on my ass," came the reply.

Connor unzipped his jacket and let the left side slide off of his shoulder. He raised his shirt up like before, revealing the shoulder. Everyone noticed a sort of metal covering over the end of his shoulder, it had what looked like three circular slots on the face of it; each slot with a circular shutter closing them up. Connor took a deep breath and held it, giving a nod to Tails. Tails knelt down and placed the arm into place. He gave it a quick and sudden twist, causing Connor to lurch forward and let out a yelp.

"What was that?!" Rainbow Dash asked, slightly alarmed.

"That was my arm connecting up with the nerves, it only hurts for a second but it's still hell," Connor explained.

He opened the panel on his upper arm and reached inside, giving the switch inside a twist to reactivate the blood flow before closing the panel up again. He fixed his shirt and jacket up properly and looked down at his metal hand, clenching it into a fist and unclenching it again several times; letting out a relieved sigh as he did.

"Thanks Tails, you don't know how much better I feel now," he said.

"Anytime," came the reply.

"Anyway, I've got a few things I need to do. I'll catchya all later," Connor said before walking off, he still sounded a little unhappy.

"Is it just me, or does he sound a little depressed to you guys?" Rainbow Dash asked once Connor was out of earshot.

"Yeah, it happens from time to time. Mental stress you see," Sally explained.

"What exactly happened to him?" Twilight asked. "I assume he didn't always have the injuries he has now."

"All we can really say is there was an accident, anymore and we'd be ignoring his wishes. He'll tell you what happened if he feels comfortable talking about it," Tails answered.

"I understand," Twilight said. "So where are all your other friends?"

"Well Sonic's out for a run, again," Sally sighed. "And I think Knuckles and Scott said they were going to help Applejack with some apple bucking, whatever that is."

* * *

Out on the Apple Family farm, Knuckles and Scott were doing just that. With his natural strength, Knuckles was easily knocking apples out of the trees with a single punch. Although he wasn't as strong as the echidna, Scott was still doing his part. Instead of actually getting the apples out the trees, he was moving the bushels of apples to the barn where they would then be stored ready to be sold. As Knuckles knocked the fruit out of their tree, Applejack approached him from behind.

"Well I've never seen anypony apple buck like that before," she noted. "Can't say it ain't effective though."

"I'm not sure if that's meant to be a compliment, but I'm going to take it like it is," Knuckles chuckled.

"It is, and thanks again for all the help. At this rate, we'll have all the apple bucking finished in no time."

"It's no problem, it's not really all that straining for me in all honesty."

"Yeah, well you've got the easy job," Scott said as he walked up to the two, wiping some sweat from his forehead once he stopped walking.

"And thank you as well Scott," Applejack chuckled. "Like I said before, with your help we'll be finished in no time."

The two Mobians got back to work, Knuckles threw his fist at another tree as Scott picked up another bushel. Applejack looked to the sky, taking note of the time by the location of the sun.

"Alright you two, I'd say it's time for a break. C'mon, I'll treat y'all to some of our famous Sweet Apple Acres Cider."

"That's sounds amazing right about now," Scott stated, only now just realizing how parched he was.

"Lead the way," Knuckles said, motioning with his hand for Applejack to head off.

The farmer pony lead the two to a spot by the barn. A table had been set up by the barn, on it sat a jug of what appeared to be apple cider and a couple of mugs waiting to be filled.

"Help yourselves," Applejack offered. "You've certainly earned it."

Knuckles and Scott both thanked her before they each grabbed a mug, filling them to the brim with the sweet liquid on offer. Scott took a swig and instantly brought his mug back down.

"This has got to be the best cider I've ever tasted," he commented, sounding somewhat surprised.

"I'll second that," Knuckles added.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Applejack chuckled. "We Apples are mighty proud of what we produce, be a shame to find somepony who didn't enjoy what we've put our all into making."

The three exchanged banter among one another for a short while. Talking about friends, hobbies and any shenanigans they got up to. Eventually Applejack asked the two Mobians what they and the others do for a living back where they come from.

"So let me get this straight," she started after hearing from Knuckles. "You've spent the entirety of your life guarding some gem?"

"It's not just a gem, it's called the Master Emerald," Knuckles explained. "The power it holds within it is more than you could ever imagine. If the wrong person were to get their hands on it, I don't even want to imagine what could happen."

"I'll bet it's been a lot easier ever since you and Tails built that underground bunker to hide it in," Scott said. "Not to mention the defense systems that came with it."

"Yeah, but none of that can ever compare to this," Knuckles joked, flexing his muscles. Scott simply rolled his eyes and shook his.

"So what about you?" Applejack asked, looking at Scott. "What is it you do."

"Odd jobs here and there," he replied. "But bounty hunting mostly, alongside Connor. We work together from time to time."

"Bounty hunting huh? That's not a job you hear very often around these parts."

"Why's that?"

"Well Equestria's a pretty peaceful place most of the time, there's never really been anything the law ponies can't take care of. Anything other than that and it's usually the Princesses or me an the other girls deal with it."

"You and your other friends deal with the nasties in this world?" Knuckles asked, cracking a smirk.

"Elements of Harmony, or are you forgettin' already," Applejack replied, smirking back at him.

"Ok enough already," Scott cut in, hoping to stop an argument before it began.

"Alright alright," Applejack chuckled. "What were we talkin' bout again?"

"You were asking us what we do back in Mobius," Scott answered. "Anything else you want to know about."

"Well whatcabout Connor then? What does he do?"

"Well like I said, he does some bounty hunting. It's mostly detective work for him though, he seems to have a knack for finding things no one else can."

"I'm also studying towards a different career," Connors voice said out of no where. The trio began looking around the area, trying to find the owner of the voice. They eventually found him standing on top of the barn roof.

"How long have you been up there?" Knuckles asked.

"A while now, didn't hear anything good though."

"What does he mean by, didn't hear anything good?" Applejack asked.

"He's a sneaky son of a bitch who uses what he knows to get the upper hand," Scott replied. "Does that answer your question?"

"Not really."

"Give me a bit more time and get to know me a little better, you'll understand then," Connor laughed.

"I'm startin' to get a little worried," Applejack said.

"Don't worry, that's a pretty common feeling," Knuckles chuckled.

"Well, I'd best be gettin' ready. I'll talk to y'all another time," Applejack stated.

"Where are you off to?" Scott asked.

"Manehattan with the other girls, if I'm not mistaken that is," Connor answered for Applejack.

Applejack stared at Connor for short moment before looking back at the other two, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

"That's just something you'll have to get used to," Scott explained.

"I still haven't gotten used to it," Knuckles sighed.

"But where's our invite?" Connor added.

"Well we were just going on a sort of trip, get outta Ponyville for a couple of days. I don't think anypony will mind if you all tag along," Applejack replied. "Especially not after everything you've done for us."

"I'll go get my shit together then," Connor said, slipping his mask on and flying off towards Ponyville.

"Does he even have anything to take with him?" Knuckles asked Scott.

"It's probably just some tools in case his arm or leg starts faulting up on him," Scott replied.

"Well if you two want to fetch your other friends, we'll all meet up at the train station," Applejack explained.

Knuckles and Scott both agreed to the arrangement before saying their goodbyes and heading off back into town.

* * *

It took a little while to gather everyone together, but they got there eventually. Sonic was the hardest to find, with all his running about it made it difficult to figure out where he was at any given time. They eventually found him having lunch at the local cafe, grumbling quietly to himself about there not being any chili dogs available anywhere. The mane six were more than happy for the Mobius group to join them on their trip to Manehattan, as Applejack stated; the more the merrier. The only person missing was their human friend, Connor.

"Where in the hell is he?" Scott asked the others as they all waited at the train station.

"He'll turn up eventually," Tails replied. "He is the one who asked if we could all come along in the first place."

There was a brief moment of silence amongst everyone, none of them really had anything to say as they waited for the train to pull in.

"Why does he always have to do something like that," Sally sighed.

The others looked to find her holding her head in one of her hands. They diverted their attention to the train now pulling into the station. Atop of the train, they saw Connor sitting on one of the cars connected to it; a grin on his face as he waved to them. They just looked at him, a deadpan expression in their faces. Pinkie Pie however, jumped up and started waving vigorously back at him. The train pulled in and Connor jumped off of the car down onto the platform.

"You just couldn't help yourself, could you?" Sonic chuckled.

"Nope, sure couldn't," Connor chuckled.

"I think you and Pinkie Pie are going to get along just fine," Twilight commented.

"Well duh, this guy knows how to enjoy himself," Pinkie said, somehow standing on her back hooves and slinging one of her forehooves over Connors shoulders; poking him in the side of his chest with the other.

"Okay now, I think that's enough of that," Connor said uncomfortably, removing Pinkies hoof from his shoulders. This elicited some quiet laughter from everyone.

"So is everypony ready to go?" Rarity asked, she received a quick yes from everyone.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your tools," Connor said to Tails as they boarded the train.

"It's not a problem, better safe than sorry. Right?" Tails replied.

"Heh, you can say that again," Connor laughed.

"All aboard!" The train conducted shouted. "All aboard everypony! Next stop, Manehattan!"

**And there you go, not a whole heap happened in this one; I'm saving that for the next chapter.**

**Please review, let me know what you though. And could my silent readers please leave a review, I'd like to know what you think and if there's anything you'd like to see.**

**Catchya :)**


	6. Manehattan Madness (Part 1)

**(A/N) Sorry for taking so long to update, I had slight case of writers block; ain't it a bitch when that happens. I hope this chapter makes up for the though. It was also just under 5000 words, just sayin'. Now for a few responses.**

**sonicepilougelover: It'a all good my friend, I understand; some things are a tad more important than my stories. Thanks for letting me know you liked the chapter even though nothing really happened.**

**Gold the Fox: If you liked that dream, I've got a few more surprises planned ;)**

**And now, Manehattan my dear readers.**

The sounds of the wheels clunking along the tracks and chug of the engine could be heard throughout the train. Several birds flew past the windows, Fluttershy smiled at them as she gave them a wave before they flew off away from the locomotive. She sat back down on her seat and turned back to her friends. They were all currently discussing what they would do once they arrived in Manehattan.

"Come on Twilight, there has to be something way better to do than go to some dusty old museum," Rainbow Dash complained.

"Some of the artifacts they have on display helped shaped the very bases of Equestria," Twilight explained. "Doesn't that sound exciting to you?" She added enthusiastically.

"Uh, no," came the blunt reply. Twilight let a groan of annoyance at her friend.

"That does actually sound quite intriguing," Sally said. "It would be interesting to learn more about your world."

"Well I'm glad somepony knows the importance of history," Twilight replied happily.

"Maybe Connor would like to come along as well, he's always willing to learn something new."

"Another egghead? Oh boy," Dash sighed.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Where is Connor?" Knuckles asked.

"He's a few seats back, I don't know how you missed him," Sonic replied.

They all looked behind themselves to find Connor, as Sonic said, a few seats back. He was tapping a rhythm out on his seat and singing quietly to himself, as they listened closely they managed to catch a few of the lyrics he was singing.

_We feel nothing so jump into the fog_

_In the hope that we hit the ground upright_

_We feel nothing so jump into the fog_

_I just hope that it's your brains that splatter not mine_

_We feel nothing so jump into the fog_

_In the hope that we hit the ground upright_

_We feel nothing so jump into the fog_

"What in Equestria is he singing?" Rarity asked.

"Jump Into The Fog, by The Wombats if I remember correctly," Scott answered.

"You done talking about me?" Connor asked, turning his head to them.

"Now that you're listening in we are," Scott replied cheekily.

Connor chuckled as he shook his head and stood up, stretching his arms out to his sides. He let out a bit of a groan before dropping his arms back down.

"I need some air," he stated.

He walked over to the window and opened it up, catching everyone by surprise when he climbed out and clambered up onto the roof of the car. Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and went to fly out after him.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked her.

"I've never been on the roof of a moving train before," Rainbow Dash explained, zipping out the window before anyone could stop her.

"And the fiascos have begun," Knuckles chuckled to himself.

Twilight let out a sigh and cast a spell, her horn lit up as she cast a teleportation spell to get Connor and Dash back inside. It worked perfectly as the two suddenly appeared inside the train car. It didn't go quite as planned when Connor had a mild freak out and stumbled back, falling straight onto his bum. He propped himself up with his hands on the floor behind him, hyperventilating as he looked around the room.

"What the hell just happened!?" He gasped.

"Uh, it was just a simple teleportation spell. Nothing to be afraid of," Twilight explained, rather surprised by Connors reaction.

"Don't ever... do that again," he replied, his voice shaking slightly.

Connor stood up and walked through the door to another train car, the others noticed he was shaking a little; almost as if he was scared.

"What in the world was that about?" Rarity asked.

"He has a... well, a problem with teleportation," Tails explained.

"But why? Why would he be so scared of simply teleporting from one place to another?" Twilight was next to ask.

"You remember that arm of his right?" Sonic asked, Twilight gave him a nod in response. "How do you think it got like that?"

Twilight was silent for a moment before she finally replied. "So what, exactly? He got teleported and his arm and leg were turned into metal?"

"Not quite," Scott answered.

"Then what?"

None of the Mobians actually replied, they'd never meet anyone more determined to find something out than Twilight. She noticed they were beginning to look at one another uncomfortably, shifting a little in discomfort. It took a moment, but suddenly it dawned on her. The others noticed it almost instantaneously, her face changed from a look of determination to one of complete shock.

"Oh sweet Celestia," she gasped.

"I think she just figured it out," Scott noted.

"Whatever gave you that impression," Knuckles replied.

"I need to go apologize to him," Twilight quickly stated.

Sally held an arm out to stop her before she could walk off.

"He's not going to hold it against you, you didn't know and he understands that," Sally explained. "Just give him a moment to collect himself."

"Now I feel terrible."

"Let's stop talking about Connor now and change the subject shall we," Scott chuckled.

"How are you going with finding those Chaos Emeralds of yours," Dash asked the Mobians.

"Well we've got one of the emeralds, I don't know if Eggman has any yet," Tails replied.

"Has Connor told anyone how he found that emerald yet?" Knuckles asked, receiving a no from all the others.

"But I'm now working on building a device to detect the energy signatures from the emeralds," Tails explained. "When it's finished, it should be able to detect any emerald in a nearby vicinity."

"That should make life a bit easier for us," Sonic noted.

"That's what I'm hoping for."

Before anyone could say anything else, the train conductor came walking through the car.

"We will be stopping at the Manehattan station shortly, can everypony please prepare to depart the train," he stated.

Everyone aboard the train stood up and started collecting their luggage together, getting ready to step off the train. The locomotive slowed down and came to a stop at the station, its passengers stepped out of the cars in an organized fashion. The Mobian group and the Mane Six were some of the last off, Connor was already standing outside waiting for them. He was wearing Tails backpack, it obviously contained the tools he asked to borrow. Twilight couldn't help but feel a little bad when she noticed Connors face was a little pale, probably still shaken up from earlier.

"Scott, you coming?" He said to his friend.

"Yep," the hedgehog replied.

The two began walking off without the others, Sally shouted out to find out where they were going but got no response. They obviously hadn't heard her and they quickly disappeared into the crowd.

"Well, that's them gone," Sonic chuckled.

"So what are we doing now," Tails asked the girls.

"Well first we need to book some rooms at one of the hotels around here," Twilight explained. "Then we can do whatever we feel like."

"There's a fashion show on later today, so I know exactly what I will be doing," Rarity stated, a little giddily.

"Do you mind if I join you Rarity?" Fluttershy asked.

"Why of course not Darling," Rarity replied. "In fact, you are all welcome to come along if you like."

Her offer was meet with awkward silence, some rubbing of the back of the head and half assed excuses.

"You can just say no," she deadpanned.

"Shall we get to the hotel now," Sally quickly said, changing the subject.

* * *

With the rooms booked and everything sorted out, everyone went off to do their own thing. It was a bit after lunch time, Sally, Twilight and Rarity sat outside of one of the city's cafés having some late lunch. Rarity was telling them about some of the designers who's work would be displayed at the show she was going to later on. By the way she spoke, it was easy to tell that fashion was indeed her passion. She had just finished talking about some of the styles that were most popular at the moment when Twilight noticed something on the opposite side of the street they were on.

"Do you think they're alright?" she asked the others, indicating to a unicorn couple standing on the sidewalk looking around themselves worriedly.

"Perhaps we should go find out," Sally suggested.

The other two agreed and they all stepped away from their table. They came to a quick halt when the couples looks of worry turned to one of joy and surprise, they were staring at something down the sidewalk. Sally, Twilight and Rarity followed their gaze, finding another unicorn who looked to be in her teens sprinting towards the two.

"Mum! Dad!" She cried upon reaching the two.

Her parents each wrapped a hoof around her, quietly sobbing what were obviously tears of happiness. Down the sidewalk were the daughter had just come from, Twilight noticed Connor calmly walking up to the family; his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. Once he reached them the mother jumped onto her back hooves and wrapped her forehooves around him, pulling him into a tight hug as she began to thank him. Connor patted her on the back lightly and quietly and spoke a few comforting words to her. When she let him go the father went to levitate a bag of bits towards him, Connor raised his hand to stop him. He said something that Twilight and the others couldn't quite hear, the father replied with a smile and a nod before the family walked away. Connor smiled lightly and appeared to wipe a tear from his eye with his thumb.

"Hey Connor," Sally called out, he looked towards and she waved towards herself for him to come over.

Connor jogged from his spot over to the trio, they all sat back down and he found himself a seat.

"What was that all about?" Sally asked.

"Kidnapping believe it or not," Connor explained. "For Equestria being a peaceful place it doesn't lack in crime."

"Yes well, I'm pretty sure they don't have a power hungry psycho constantly trying to take over the world," Sally chuckled.

"Why didn't you accept the money they offered you?" Twilight was next to ask.

"One of the first real jobs I ever did when I first started in this line of work was a kidnapping. Now, depending on the circumstances, I do those jobs for free from time to time," Connor replied.

"And they say chivalry is dead," Rarity chuckled.

"I have my moments," Connor laughed.

It was at this moment that the girls noticed he had a black eye, his left eye to be specific.

"My goodness, what happened to your eye?!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Oh, that," Connor laughed. "Well when I found the bloke who was holding the girl, he wasn't all that keen on letting her go. In other words, he threw a stool at my face."

"You should really put something on that," Sally commented.

"There'll be time for that later."

"So what else do you have planned?" Twilight asked.

"Well, I'm going to meet up with Scott later to see how he went. We've both been doing a little bit of work, there's been a few robberies around here apparently."

After talking for about half an hour two ponies approached the group, they were wearing the city's police uniform.

"Excuse us sir," they said to Connor. "You wouldn't happen to be the pony who sorted out that kidnapping business earlier?"

"Well I'm not a pony in case you haven't noticed," Connor replied, receiving a kick in the leg from Sally under the table. "But to answer you're question, yes I am. How the hell did you find out so quickly?"

"News travels fast," one of the police ponies explained. "We were wondering if you would perhaps mind helping us on a case. We have a lot of work happening at the moment and another set of hooves would be helpful."

"Why the hell not," Connor replied as he stood up.

"Do you mind if I tag along?" Twilight asked. "I'm interested in seeing how you work."

Connor looked at the two police ponies for a response, getting a nod in response. Twilight and Connor left their two friends to their own business and followed the police ponies down the street. They walked for two blocks before coming to a stop outside of an alleyway, several other police ponies were searching the area. Inside the alley, what was obviously a body had been covered with a sheet.

"Seriously? Murder?" Connor spoke.

"Like we said, we need some help," one of the ponies replied. "We can normally take care of any crime in the city, our ranks are unfortunately running a little thin."

"No, I mean the murder. Everyone I've talked to has said Equestria's quite peaceful."

"Murders are rare, I'll admit that, but their not unheard of. So can you help us?"

"Alright then," Connor sighed. "You sure you're alright with this?" He asked, turning to Twilight.

"I've never really had to deal with death before," she replied. "But I'm not a little filly, I'll be ok."

Connor gave her a nod and entered the alley, he began by moving the sheet off of the body to check the damage. The pony was a stallion with a plain white coat and a black mane and tail. His cutie mark was a dollar sign of all things. He appeared to have a single stab wound to the throat, the pool of blood under him suggested his jugular vein had been cut. Finding nothing of any real importance, Connor stood back up. Their wasn't anything in the immediate area that could be of any use at all. This was where the police ponies had hit a dead end, unsure as to what else they could possibly do to find any clues. Connor walked over to one of the walls of the buildings on his side, he placed his hand on the bricks and slowly gazed over it. Twilight watched on in interest, curious as to what he was going to do next. The color of his right eye suddenly shifted from its natural red to a glowing blue, he began gazing over the wall for a second time. He saw what everyone else had missed, his eye allowed him to see the remnants of blood that had been wiped away; someone was obviously trying to hide something. He took a few steps back and stared up at the rooftop, a thought came to his mind and he was quick to react. He walked over to a drainpipe and started climbing it, scaling it up to rooftop. For a couple of seconds he disappeared from view, coming back a short moment later and sliding back down the drain pipe.

"What did you find?" One of the police ponies asked.

Connor held his hand out, in it was a dagger. A rather impressive dagger at that, it's hilt appeared to be made of gold and its blade of silver. It had blood stained over the blade.

"Ever seen anything like it?" Connor asked.

"I have actually," the same pony replied. "There's only one pony in this city who owns a dagger like that, and if it wasn't stolen then why would he just throw it away like that?"

"People do all sorts of strange things in the heat of the moment. So who's the guy who owns it?"

"His house is a few blocks away from here. His name is Blazing Ember."

"Right, not a weird name or anything."

"Our names might sound strange to you, but how do you think your names sound to us," Twilight said to Connor.

"Righto, whatever, we're getting sidetracked here," Connor replied, turning his attention back to the police pony. "Can you take me to this, Blazing Embers, house?"

"Of course, come with me and I'll take you right there," the pony replied.

After they'd been walking a while, Twilight began talking again.

"So are you going to be doing this by the book? Or are you just going to make something up?" She asked Connor. He simply looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "I've been talking to Sally, she told me a bit about your methods," Twilight explained with a chuckle.

"Of course she'd tell you that," Connor sighed. "Well if you really want to know, I haven't decided yet. I'll figure something out when we get there."

"There's something else I'd like to ask, what happened when your eye changed color back there?"

"My arm isn't the only thing that isn't flesh and blood anymore. My eye has three search modes, the one back there was for scanning for clues and such. I was able detect the remnants of a blood spatter, the way it was placed was as if someone had flicked something in an upwards trajectory and blood had flicked off onto the wall."

"Are inventions like your eye common where you come from?"

"Kind of, but not exactly," Connor said, ending the conversation.

The rest of the walk to Blazing Embers house was a quiet one, nobody spoke a word. It wasn't all that long of a walk, they arrived in no time at all. Connor turned to police pony and began talking.

"Is there anything you can tell me about this guy?" He asked.

"Well he's a collector of sorts, artifacts; paintings, he has a spot for fancy weapons; hence the knife. He sells some of the items from his collection at times," the pony explained.

Connor mulled it over for a couple of seconds before giving his response.

"This will probably go a lot smoother if you wait out here. People tend to get a little... jumpy, when cops are around," he explained.

"Ok, that's fair enough," the police pony sighed.

"What about me?" Twilight asked.

"You're coming in with me," Connor replied. "You're the knowledgable type, that might come in handy."

"Ok then, let's do this," Twilight said, walking towards the front.

They approached the front door and Connor knocked, it took a couple of moments for a response. When the door opened they came face to face with a unicorn stallion. He had a yellow coat and an orange mane and tail. The style of his mane showed he was probably one of the upper class types.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"Blazing Ember?" Connor replied, receiving a nod from the said pony. "My friend and I here have heard you have quite the collection of artifacts and such, also that you might consider selling some pieces."

"Ah, so you're looking to make a purchase?"

"Yes, exactly so."

"Well then please, do come on in," Ember said, a wide smile on his face.

He stepped to the side and allowed Twilight and Connor enter his home. After he'd closed the door he motioned for his two visitors to follow him, leading them down the hall and into a room at the back of the house. Inside, they found an assortment of relics and antiques on display. Many extravagant weapons had been hung up on sections of the wall, vases; precious stone and other items were sat upon shelves or pedestals.

"Please, look around and let me know if anything catches your eye," Ember explained.

"Is that a moonstone!" Twilight gasped running over to the said item.

The moonstone almost looked like an ordinary rock. It was a pale white color and had several crater like holes over it. What didn't make it seem like an ordinary rock however, was the slight blue glow emanating off of it surface.

"You know your artifacts," Ember chuckled. "It is in fact a moonstone, an old friend gave it to me. I'm afraid it isn't for sale."

"What happened here?" Connor asked, looking at a collection of five daggers on the wall. "You appear to be missing one," he noted, pointing out the one empty space that left only four of the daggers to be seen.

"Yes, funny thing about that. I took the one that's missing down to give it a clean, and now it seems I've misplaced the blighted thing," Ember explained. Connor couldn't help but notice his voice sounded a little nervous.

"You misplaced it did you?" Connor asked, turning to the pony.

"Yes, that's what I said."

Connor stared at him for moment before shrugging his shoulders. He reached into his jacket and slowly pulled out the knife they'd found at the murder scene.

"Would this happen to be the one you, 'misplaced'?"

"Uh, where did you find that?" Ember asked, his voice cracking slightly.

Connor stared at him, not saying a word. All of sudden, Ember bent his head forward and fired some magic from his horn. The spell hit Connor in the chest and sent him flying into the wall behind him. He hit the wall and fell to the ground, a vase fell off of its place and smashed on floor below.

"CONNOR!" Twilight shouted, running to his side.

"I'm fine," Connor replied, looking up just in time to find Ember sprinting out the door. "Here we go," he growled, getting to his feet and running out the door after him.

Out on the street, Connor found Ember sprinting away down the sidewalk off to his right; the police pony who had been waiting outside was hot on his tail. Twilight came out of the building and the two gave chase. Ember appeared to be quite fast, slowly gaining a decent lead ahead of the police pony. Connor picked up the pace, running past the pony and leaving him and Twilight behind himself. Ember made a sharp right turn, ducking into a café and heading straight for the back door. Connor followed after him, jumping and placing his left hand on top of a table as he vaulted over it. Through the door they exited into an alleyway behind the café. Ember used some magic to knock over a stack of crates into Connors path, hoping to trip him up. Connor jumped at one of the walls beside him and pressed off of it with his foot as he leaped over the crates. They soon found themselves back out on one of the main streets of the city. Ember once again used his magic, this time hurling a trash can straight at Connor. All it took was a simple duck to avoid the projectile before he continued the chase. Ember ducked into another alleyway, he used a teleportation spell and moved himself onto a set of stairs on his left that made up a fire escape. Connor jumped to his right and pressed off of the wall, pushing himself up to the fire escape. He grabbed onto the railing and heaved himself up onto the staircase, he started climbing just as Ember made it to the rooftop. Connor made it to the top of the roof to find the pony jumping to another rooftop, he ran and jumped cross after him. The rooftop he jumped to was lower than the one he was already on, he had to tuck into a roll when he hit the ground to avoid any damage. Ember got the edge of the roof and teleported down to the ground, Connor followed and dropped down after him. Ember had obviously had enough of the chase. The moment Connor hit the ground, the same spell that had sent him flying earlier rocketed straight over his head. He turned to see Ember charging up another spell. Connor raced ahead, hoping to reach the pony before he had to much to deal with. Ember fired again, Connor twisted his body and leaned back to avoid it. With Connor almost on top of him, Ember fired of a third spell, Connor jumped to the wall and pulled of a short wall-run. As he came back down he threw out his left fist, connecting it into the side of Embers face. Ember recoiled back, letting out a pained yelp as he did. Before he could react, Connor grabbed his head and slammed his knee into the bottom of his jaw. Again Connor grabbed his head, this time slamming it straight into the brick wall. Once, twice and then a third time; the final blow knocked him clean out. Ember collapsed to the ground and Connor let out a long sigh, glad it was finally over. The sound of someone puffing behind him caught his attention, he turned find the police pony slowly walking up to him; completely out of breath.

"I'm getting to old for this," the pony puffed.

"What kept you?" Connor chuckled.

"I was keeping up with you just fine until you started running along the rooftops, us earth ponies don't exactly have a way to climb like you two just did."

Connor shrugged his shoulders before speaking again. "So where's Twilight?"

"Right here," the said pony replied, walking up from behind the other pony. "How'd you go?"

"Well I got him," Connor replied. "My chest feels like Knuckles just used it as his punching, but other than that I'm fine."

"How long do you think he'll be out?" The police pony asked.

"Can't really say, there's few things I want to know though," Connor replied.

"Such as?"

"Well for one, if he's Unicorn and has magic; why in the hell would he use a knife to kill the other guy? Couldn't he just, I don't know, burn him or something?"

"Using magic to kill other ponies is forbidden, that doesn't stop some from doing it though," Twilight explained. "Spells that cause death are also very difficult to learn, and even harder to control. Most Unicorns only know the basics like levitation, or teleportation for the more advanced."

"Makes sense I guess," Connor replied.

"But there's something I want to know," Twilight added.

"What's that?" Connor asked.

"Why didn't you just fly after him instead of running? You've got that gadget of yours after all."

"Simple, I need to keep my skills sharp. Last thing I need is to be in a situation where I don't have my jetpack and find that I've gotten rusty."

Twilight gave simple understanding nod. Connor crouched down next to Ember and gave him a quick inspection, not really sure what to look for.

_"You only left him unconscious, this is pathetic; you can do better than that_," a whispered voice snickered.

"Did you say something?" Connor asked, turning his head to the other two ponies.

"No, we didn't say anything," Twilight replied, a puzzled expression on her face.

Connor shrugged his shoulders and gave his eyes a quick rub before standing back up.

"Is there a hospital or a doctor anywhere around here?" He asked.

"Yes there is a hospital nearby, why would you need one though?" The police pony asked.

"That spell he hit me with at his house, my chest hurts like hell; just want to make sure I don't have any cracked or broken ribs," Connor explained, clutching his chest with one of his arms.

"If you don't mind waiting for my colleagues to arrive, I can have someone escort you to the hospital then."

"Sounds good, maybe you should go meet up with the others now," Connor said turning his attention to Twilight.

"I can stay if you like," she replied.

"No point in it, there's nothing else to do here."

"Okay then, I'll see you later I guess," Twilight said as she began to walk away.

"Yep," Connor simply replied as he lit a cigarette.

"Feel free to come by the police station later," the police pony said to Connor once Twilight had left. "I'm sure you want to know why Ember here did it, and there's also the matter of your pay."

"I'm getting paid for this?" Connor replied.

"Of course, you didn't have to help us and yet you did. We'll be more than happy to pay you for your services."

"Alrighty then."

**Now I know this chapter focused heavily on my OC Connor, but I hope you can forgive that. I'm planning on focusing more on the other characters in the next chapter though. Possibly Tails as per Gold the Fox's request.**

**And what about that little whisper, who does everyone think it was?**

**As usual, leave a review and let me know what you thought.**

**Until next time**

**catchya :)**


	7. Manehattan Madness (Part 2)

**(A/N) Here we go, chapter seven. To those of you who reviewed the last one, I'm glad none of you had an issue with it being focused mostly on Connor. And Gold, I'm glad you're loving my OC to. Nice to my creations are appreciated haha. Now then this is the Tails action you were requesting Gold, so I hope this lives up to what you were wanting.**

**Without further adieu, I gave chapter seven of 'Into a New World' **

The sun had now set, bringing on the first night of the ponies and Mobians trip to Manehattan. One particular cyan pony was currently pestering her violet colored friend.

"So what happened exactly?"

"I've already told you Rainbow Dash, three times to be precise," Twilight groaned.

"But I missed the chase, I need all the juicy details," Dash replied.

"Then perhaps you should go ask Connor, he could tell you more than I can."

"Well where is he?"

"He's at the hospital, but you probably shouldn't disturb hi-" Twilight explained, only to be cut off as Rainbow Dash zipped past her. "That pony," she muttered to herself.

Twilight had ran into Rainbow Dash outside of the hotel they had booked their rooms at. Dash had apparently heard a few snippets of Connors little chase and had been quick to ask what happened, news certainly did travel fast in Manehattan. Twilight walked through the doors of the hotel and into the lobby, inside she found Scott; Knuckles, Fluttershy and Applejack. Scott and Knuckles were off to the side of the room, talking about something Twilight couldn't quite hear. She opted to approach her two pony friends rather than interrupt Knuckle and Scotts discussion.

"Well howdy there Twi," Applejack greeted.

"Hey Applejack," Twilight replied. "What have you and Fluttershy been up to?"

"Well ah actually ran into one of my relatives, I've spent most of the day catching up with them," Applejack explained.

"And I spent the day at the spa with Rarity," Fluttershy answered.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that Rarity managed to find the city spa house," Twilight chuckled.

"I always thought she was the prissy pony type," Knuckles chuckled as he and Scott approached the three.

"Don't let her hear you say that," Applejack stated.

"Well that's not to bad," Twilight said. "Just don't ever. EVER. Call her marshmallow, you'll never hear the end of it."

"What's that about marshmallows?" Rarity's voice asked, the others turned to find her walking down the hotel stairs into the lobby.

"Uh... I was just saying... How much I like marshmallows," Scott nervously answered, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I see. Marshmallows are quite a lovely treat aren't they," Rarity agreed. Everyone relaxed a little once they realized she hadn't heard what Twilight had said. "We should probably get going Fluttershy, if you haven't changed your mind about the fashion show that is."

"I haven't changed my mind Rarity, I'm ready to go whenever you are," Fluttershy replied.

"Very well then. If we don't see the rest of you tonight, then we'll see you tomorrow morning."

"You two have fun tonight," Twilight said as her two friends left. "So what's everyone else doing?" She asked the other three.

"I'm gonna have a snooze," Scott answered. "I'm little tired, don't really know why; but anyway."

"I'll see you later then dude," Knuckles said to him as he headed up the stairs. "You girls hungry?" He asked Applejack and Twilight.

"Sure, I could eat," Applejack replied.

"Why not," Twilight agreed.

* * *

On the city streets of Manehattan, one two tailed fox calmly walked along his current path. Tails was a little surprised at first at the lack of attention towards the non pony life forms walking the streets, he figured most people had already heard of him and his friends; it would probably explain why he wasn't receiving any double glances. Tails had spent the day simply seeing the sights, he was still yet to spend any of the money he had been given. Connor and Scott had shared some of their earnings with him and the others, it was apparently their way of helping look after for one another for the time being. Tails couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself. Back in Mobotropolis, Connor had connections all over the city. Not only were they wide spread, he'd gotten them all in quite a short span of time. It would be interesting to find out what the human had put together in the span of one single day. He'd asked Connor how he did it one time, the response; trial and error. Now wasn't the time be thinking about his friends workings though, Tails was out to enjoy himself.

As he walked down the street, he happened to pass in front of a video game arcade. One thing did confuse Tails about this world, that was the differing advances in some of their technology. They had video games and such, yet from what he saw they used candles for lighting rather than lightbulbs. He understood why there wasn't any transport such as automobiles, he could have sworn he'd seen a crane at construction site though. Deciding to forget about all the confusing irony, he made his way into the arcade. Fillies and colts ran from one machine to another, giggling and laughing amongst themselves. There were also several ponies who appeared to be in their teens in the arcade as well, Tails could hear them throwing friendly insults at one another. The fox approached one of the machines to have a go, the game on the machine was named Pac Mare. With how similar it was to the game Pac Man back on Mobius, Tails quickly found himself getting the second highest high score. He left the machine and began wandering around the arcade, waiting for one of the games to catch his eye. A young colt invited him over to play against him on what appeared to be a sort of fighting game. They both selected their characters and before long, the match started. After getting his ass well and truly whipped, Tails called it quits and left the arcade. As he wandered down the sidewalk, he came across two stallions huddled together talking quietly to one another. He walked past them and caught a snippet of their conversation, it grabbed Tails attention almost instantly.

"I'm telling you, this emerald could fetch us a fortune. I've never seen anything like it," one of the stallions said. The fact he said they'd never seen anything like it, Tails had a fair idea what the emerald was. He ducked into an alleyway and stuck his head round the corner so he could keep listening in.

"And double cross the boss? Are you kidding me?" The other stallion replied. "We're supposed to bring it straight to him, we'd never even make it out of the city if he found out we'd stolen from him."

"But we haven't even given it to him yet, it wouldn't be stealing."

"Go ahead then, do a runner; be my guest, but it's your funeral."

"Fine," the first stallion sighed, finally giving up. "Let's just get it to him. The sooner we do it, the sooner I can go home and drink myself to sleep."

"You really need to get some help for that," his friend sighed. "But anyway, let's get going."

The two Stallions began walking down the street where Tails had just come from. The fox left his hiding spot and walked back out onto the sidewalk, he cautiously began following the two stallions. They had obviously never been tailed before, seeing as they didn't take any notice of the Mobian that was now currently following their every move. The two traded banter between one another throughout the walk, from their family to their work; even their sex lives of all things came up at one point. Tails ended up learning a bit more about these two than he really wanted to. The flap on one of their saddlebags flipped open for a couple of seconds before the stallion closed it up again. In those mere seconds Tails saw all the evidence he needed to confirm his suspicions, the inside of the saddlebag held a Chaos Emerald; the white emerald to be exact. He continued to follow the two stallions until they arrived at a large open courtyard in front of what appeared to be an abandoned office building. It very nearly looked like an old parking lot filled with junk. Tails hung back as the stallions continued into the courtyard and up to the building. On closer inspection, several other ponies could be seen patrolling the yard. Tails knew that if he wanted to get the emerald then he would have to move now, leaving it for later ran the risk of losing the emerald and never seeing it again. Using his tails to fly through the air wasn't an option. He couldn't gain a great amount of altitude, if one the guards were to hear him and look up he would be made immediately and probably lose the emerald.

Tails took in a long deep breath and slowly exhaled, it helped get rid of the nerves and calm himself. He cautiously made his way into the courtyard and hid behind a nearby barrier. One guard walked towards the barrier before making a left turn and continuing on his way. Tails jumped over the barrier and made his way down the path where the guard had just come from. He ducked behind a wall and continued along, stopping at the end and peeking around the corner. Three guards stood in a group talking amongst themselves, another barrier was on the ground about five meters away from them towards Tails. The barrier extended out away from the guards towards the building, it would be a perfect way to close some distance towards his goal. The fox knew he wouldn't be able to reach it without at least one of the guards spotting him first, a distraction was in order. Tails had only ever been on one stealth mission, and that was with Connor. He searched his memory as tried to think back to the said mission, trying to remember anything he'd picked up from the crafty human. A lightbulb went off in his head and he began searching the ground around himself. He managed to find an empty glass jar, the perfect item to draw some attention. Tails slowly edged his way from behind the corner and held his arm behind himself, the jar gripped in his hand as he prepared throw it. He threw his arm forwards and released his hold on the glass jar, it went sailing over the guards heads and shattered on the ground a distance away from them.

"What was that?" One guards asked, slightly alarmed.

"I don't know, go check it out," one of his friends replied.

The other two watched as one of them went to investigate the disturbance. With their attention diverted Tails quietly ran ahead, dropping to the ground and sliding into position behind the cover. He again began to work his way towards the building, one hand held against the barrier as he kept himself crouched down and sneaked onwards. Reaching the end of the barrier, he quickly darted across an open area and came to a hiding stop behind a large dumpster. He was now about ten meters away from the door to the building, one final guard stood watch at the entrance. Tails peeked around the corner and cautiously studied the stallion, there was no way he was going to move without a good reason.

"Hey, you," Tails said, just loud enough for only the guard to hear.

"Huh?" The guard muttered, turning towards the dumpster as Tails hid back behind it.

The guard began to make his way towards Tails position, the fox worked his way around the opposite side as the guard got closer. Once he was on the opposite side of the dumpster to Tails, the Mobian quietly jogged through the door; keeping his body low the entire. The first part was done, Tails was now inside the belly of the beast. If things in Equestria were the same as on Mobius, then the running cliche of the boss being on the top floor was probably a strong possibility.

He cautiously made his way up the first set of stairs and arrived on the first floor, it seemed as though the stairs to each floor weren't located in the same area; hopefully that wouldn't be to much of an issue. As he began searching for another set of stairs, it quickly became evident that the weren't any guards posted on this floor of the building. Tails wasn't sure what would go on in an office building in this world, seeing as back on Mobius a workplace like this would usually be filled with computers and such. Shoving the random rambling to the back of his mind, he eventually found the next set of stairs and continued onwards. He came out onto the next floor and quickly came to stop, he could hear a few guards walking around the room. Tails walked out into the space and dived behind an upturned table, dropping down onto his belly as a guard calmly walked by. After making sure the guard hadn't seen him, he slowly got back onto his feet a stayed low as he walked to end of the table. With no guards in sight, he started sneaking through the room. He had to hide behind a stack of crates when another guard came into sight. Once he'd passed by, Tails made a beeline for the stairs. The next two floors went much the same, Tails would hide behind whatever object he had available when a guard approached and then make a move towards the stairs. Coming up onto the fifth floor, he found himself walking into a long corridor. There was one door at the end of the hallway and several more along the sides. The door at the end of the hallway began to open, causing Tails to go into a brief moment of panic before darting towards the first door he could get to. The first door was locked, causing Tails heart to start beating at a much faster pace. The one at the end of the hall opened further up. He tried the second one, the door wasn't locked but there was something up against it inside the room; there was no way he was getting it opened. He raced for the third one, Tails hadn't come this far for everything to fall apart now. As luck would have it, the third door opened up and Tails raced inside. He closed the door and leaned his back against it, holding a hand over his heart as he tried desperately to calm himself down. The sound of footsteps passing by caught his attention, he listened carefully as he waited for them to go down the stairs; ignoring the thudding in his ears his heart was creating as it pumped away in overdrive. The footsteps disappeared and Tails carefully left the room, peeking out into the hallway to make sure there was no one else there. Finding no one, he left the room and closed the door behind himself before making his way to door at the end of the hallway. He placed an ear to the door, listening carefully for any sounds of activity. There wasn't a single noise coming from the room. He opened the door and walked inside, closing it up behind himself. Resting upon a wooden desk before him was the prize he had gone to all of this trouble for, the white Chaos Emerald. Tails picked up the emerald and gazed over it, letting out a breath of relief; the hard part was done.

With the emerald still in his hand, he walked over to a window and opened it up. He worked himself out the window and placed his feet on the ledge below. Below himself Tails could see he was at the back of the building, he wouldn't need to worry about the guards in the courtyard. He twisted his tails around one another and let go, allowing himself to fall to ground below. His tails unwrapped themselves and began spinning at a fast pace, allowing him to hover through the air and reduce the speed of his decent. Now that he was a meter above the ground, he stopped spinning his tail and let himself drop to the ground. Tails looked back at the building and then down at the emerald in his hand, letting out a light chuckle once the situation finally sank in. He'd found another emerald, they were now another step closer to getting home. Very suddenly, a voice began screaming out in anger. Tails caught a few snippets that sounded like the owner of the voice was demanding to know where his emerald had gone. The fox made the quick, and probably wise, decision to leg it out of the immediate area.

"You see Connor, you're not the only ghost around here," Tails chuckled to himself.

**Bit of a short one this, but I hope you can forgive that.**

**I wanted to try my hand at something a little different, so did everyone like this little stealth segment of mine? Let me know in the reviews if you did or not, I'd appreciate the feedback.**

**On a side note, I've recently begun a new story. It's called, 'Kingdom Come'. Think Sonic and the Black Knight era, medieval times in other words. If you're interested, swing on over and take a look and let me know what you thought. Well, that's all from me for now.**

**Catchya :)**


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